'Amazing,' said Jommy.

'More than amazing,' said Servan, shivering again. 'Unbelievable.'

Jim reached inside his tunic and pulled out a leather cord around his neck bearing a beautifully carved trinket. 'The Queen herself gave me this,' he said. 'She said any elf would recognize it and I would be named Elf-friend.'

Both Jommy and Servan leaned forward to inspect the trinket more closely. It was a pattern of interlocking knots, carved in what looked to be bone or ivory, and there was something about the design and shape that seemed more than human.

Suddenly serious, the thief said, 'I'm a lot of things, lads: rogue, adventurer, thief and, when needs be, downright murderous thug, but no man has ever called Jimmyhand a liar.'

'Jimmyhand?' asked Jommy.

'My... professional name, as it were. After a famous old thief from back in the day, Jimmy the Hand. Some say I'm a lot like him. Others say he might have been my great grand-da but I think that was my mum trying to make me feel special. So, when I was a wee tyke I'd say, "I'm Jimmyhand", 'cause I never quite got the "the" part right. So it stuck. I'm rightly named Jim Dasher.'

In the time he had spent with Caleb and his family at Sorcerer's Isle, Jommy had heard a fair number of 'back in the day' stories from the old timers, not a few of which revolved around the notorious Jimmy the Hand, a thief who according to legend became an agent of the Prince of Krondor, then later was given a n.o.ble t.i.tle, rising to the rank of Duke of both Rillanon and Krondor, the two most powerful offices in the Kingdom after the King.

Jommy studied the thief. He hardly knew him, but found him agreeable company, his outrageous stories were a welcome relief from the tedium of days spent waiting for an enemy who might never appear. He had no doubt Jim was every bit as dangerous as he claimed to be, but there was a quality under the surface that Jommy had learned to recognized at an early age out on the road alone: an instinct about who he could trust and who he couldn't. He nodded, then said, 'Jim, I'll never call you a liar until the day I catch you out.'

Jim stared at Jommy for a long moment, then the grin returned. 'Fair enough.'

Servan turned his attention back to the distant beach they had been a.s.signed to watch. 'How much longer?'

'As long as it takes,' said Jommy.

'Which won't be much longer,' said Jim, pointing off into the rainy gloom. 'Boat coming.'

'How can you-' began Servan, then he saw it, a tiny dark speck that grew larger by the moment as a longboat came into the cove.

'Must be a ship lying off,' said Jommy.

'I'll tell the Captain,' said Servan, scrambling from under the lean-to. 'You watch them.'

Jommy also got out from under the shelter. 'Let's get a little closer.'

Jim held him back. 'Wait. There's another boat.'

After a moment, Jommy could see a second longboat coming out of the gloom, following the first by a dozen yards. 'Now,' whispered Jim, though they were far too distant to be overheard, 'what do you think of that?'

Jommy said, 'Well, I can say the intelligence the Captain received was correct so far.'

'Not about the second boat,' corrected Jim.

'Picky,' Jommy muttered.

The two longboats rowed in to sh.o.r.e, and men leaped out of each and pulled them up on the sand, securing them with stakes and ropes. 'Looks like they plan on being here for a while,' said Jommy.

'What's that?' asked Jim, pointing to the second boat.

The crew of the two boats were dressed like common seamen, though each sported a black headcloth, tied behind the left ear. Most were barefoot, marking them as sailors, though some wore heavy boots. But the last man leaving the second boat wore robes of dark orange trimmed with black. His features were masked by a hood, but the other men seemed deferential to the point of fear. None offered to help him exit the craft and all gave him a wide berth as he came ash.o.r.e.

'Magician,' said Jim, almost spitting out the word, 'I hate magicians.'

'I've met a few I like,' Jommy said quietly.

'Well, I haven't. d.a.m.n near had my head removed by a magical trap down in Darindus one time. There's no trap made by the hand of mortal man I can't puzzle out with enough time, but magic...'

'Well,' said Jommy, 'I've met a few who are all right.'

Jim fell silent as the men in the boat spread out. It was clear that they were checking the surrounding area to see if they were observed. Jommy and Jim reached up and quietly took apart the hastily constructed lean-to, hiding the canvas behind the tree, then they both moved to a denser stand of bushes to the right. Without a word, they shared the same thought: in a few minutes an armed company of men, numbering twice those on the beach, would come over the rise behind them, but until that moment, it would be a good thing not to be seen by these men.

Jommy felt Jim's hand tighten on his shoulder. Jim pointed at himself and Jommy, then back up the hill. Jommy pointed to a small outcrop a hundred feet back up the trail, and Jim nodded. They moved through the rain which was letting up a bit, causing Jommy to curse under his breath. He wanted more cover, not less, and the weather had picked a very inconvenient time to become more clement after days of punishing him.

When they reached the outcrop they both lay down, ignoring the soaking mud. The men from the boats had spread out to form a perimeter and a few began unloading what looked to be supplies.

'Looks like they plan on staying a while,' repeated Jommy.

'A third boat!' whispered Jim.

The third boat put in to the right of the others and more sailors leaped out, hauled it on to the beach and quickly began unloading provisions. More crates were pa.s.sed along and Jim observed, 'They may be murderous dogs, but they're disciplined.'

Jommy observed their efficiency without comment.

Jim whispered, 'Those head-scarves. Saw something like that on some corpses down in the south Sunsets, about a week's sailing out of Freeport.'

'Who are they?'

'Wouldn't rightly know: these are the first ones I've seen who weren't dead. We came across a smoking hulk, burned down to the waterline, beached on an island with no proper name. The ship was known to my captain, but the corpses wearing those head-scarves were unknown to any sailor on that ship. Bit of a mystery as no man living was around to tell us the story of what had happened. We can only a.s.sume that the captain and crew of the burned ship had been carried off as slaves.'

The sound of movement from behind them caused both young men to turn around. Kaspar and Captain Stefan were coming down the hill in a crouch. Stirrings amongst the undergrowth revealed that men were moving into position to encircle the landing party.

'How many?' asked Kaspar, his eyes scanning the cove.

'About thirty,' said Jommy, 'and they have a spell-caster of some kind in their midst. The crew seems downright afraid of him.'

Jim said, 'Looks like some pirates out of the Sunsets, General.'

Kaspar muttered, 'What are they doing here?'

Jim whispered, 'If you sail straight west out of the Sunsets...'

'You end up in the Sea of Kingdoms,' finished Kaspar. 'I know how they got here. What I want to know is why.' To Captain Stefan, Kaspar said, 'Pa.s.s the word. I want prisoners. Especially that magician if we can manage it.'

'Magicians,' said Jim, as if it were a curse word.

Jommy exchanged glances with Kaspar. 'I said I've known some good ones.'

Kaspar's smile was rueful. 'And I've know some who were b.l.o.o.d.y monsters,' returned the General. 'Captain?'

'Sir?'

'Are the men in position?'

The Captain turned and made a slight hand gesture. Wherever he looked up on the hill, Jommy couldn't see the returned signal, but the Captain said, 'In position, sir.'

Kaspar nodded. 'Captain, whenever you're ready-'

'What is that?' asked Jim, pointing.

The others didn't need Jim to explain what 'that' was, for they saw it too. The magician was holding a staff above his head and a pillar of light appeared around him, reaching up into the clouds. A hollow voice speaking in a language unfamiliar to either onlooker answered seemingly from the air around the magician.

Then a figure appeared before the spell-caster, a shadowy thing draped in smoke. Even through the constant sound of the rain they could hear the air thrum with energy and crackle as if sparks were dancing off metal. The thing spoke and again that hollow voice echoed alien words. The magician replied in the foreign tongue and the creature looked around, surveying the area.

The hair on the back of Jommy's neck stood up as it seemed to lock gazes with him. The figure began to resolve itself into a man-like form, easily seven feet tall. Its shoulders were impossibly broad, and it appeared to have no neck. The creature's 'skin', dark-grey blue without any apparent blemish, rippled and pulsed, as if air flowed under a silk cloth, and the face was featureless, save for two red flames where eyes should be. The skin hardened and began to look like black rock.

'Now, Captain,' said Kaspar softly.

Captain Stefan stood up, holding a white cloth in his left hand, and made a single chopping motion.

Chaos erupted.

From the ridge behind them shouts rang out, while arrows arched through the air to strike several of the men on the beach. Instantly three things occurred, as Jommy drew his sword. The men on the beach fanned out in precise order, not panicking, keeping their wits about them, and seeking cover wherever possible behind the bulwarks of the boats, ridges of sand, and some large piles of driftwood. Several bowmen on the beach returned fire, but they were shooting blindly into the thicket on the hillside while those above had clear targets on the sand.

Men raced past Jommy's position, soldiers wearing Keshian and Kingdom tabards, and Jommy leaped to his feet, shouting, 'Come on, Jim!'

The conjured creature roared. It stood defiantly, arms spread as if ready to charge or be charged, and the men approaching could feel waves of heat coming from it as the volume of smoke rising from its black-rock skin increased.

Men faltered as they raced towards it, whilst those waiting for the onslaught were emboldened. Jommy half-ran, half-fell down the hillside, pa.s.sing several soldiers who were brought to a halt by the demonic being's outcry. Suddenly he realized he was pa.s.sing the vanguard and in front of him waited weapons poised to cut him down, plus some creature from an impossible nightmare.

Jommy started to back away, but one of the raiders charged him, ignoring arrows that were still raining down from the hillside. The raider took a step forward then was impaled by a long shaft which knocked him backwards. Jommy crouched, waiting for the others to catch up. He glanced backwards, and saw the soldiers were either motionless or retreating.

He understood why a moment later. The conjured creature was growing! The thing was now a good two feet taller than it had been before and much broader across what Jommy considered to be its shoulders. The arms appeared brawnier, and decorated with what seemed to be burning metal bands, twisting rods of some hot metal that gave off so much heat that Jommy could feel it through the rain. Cracks in the rocky 'skin' now appeared and from them tiny flames issued.

'Jim!' shouted Jommy, 'Let's get out of...' He glanced around and realized Jim Dasher was nowhere in sight. 'd.a.m.n,' muttered Jommy as he quickly backed away. 'He's either a coward or a lot smarter than I am!'

A pirate raced at Jommy and swung a vicious overhead blow with a weighted cutla.s.s, a blow that was likely either to break Jommy's blade or cleave him from shoulder to stomach. Training and experience lent the young man the reflex to knock the blade to the right while dodging to the left, avoiding most of the force. The sand on the beach was terrible footing, so Jommy ignored the impulse to spin and slice the man's spine, instead electing to throw a right elbow at his jaw. Pain shot up his arm to his shoulder as he connected, and the man's eyes glazed over. Stepping back, Jommy slashed sideways with his blade, slicing the man's neck. As blood spurted upwards, Jommy continued to back away, unable to take his eyes off the horror that rose up before him.

Kaspar's voice cut through the air: 'Hit them hard: now!'

The soldiers were well trained, and despite their growing sense of dread as the conjured being rose up to a height of nearly nine feet, they charged. Those on the beach were dedicated, fanatics even, but they were not trained soldiers, and suddenly the left side of their defence collapsed.

With nowhere to retreat, they fought viciously, but within seconds the soldiers of Kaspar's command had killed half a dozen and had the rest retreating through the water to the scant protection offered by beached boats. Jommy faced a more determined defence, as soldiers from the Kingdom, Roldem and Kesh joined him in attacking the middle, mere yards away from the creature.

The raiders fought like men possessed, as if they were more afraid to retreat back to where the smouldering creature waited than die facing mortal men. Then the creature strode forward, and the man next to Jommy howled in agony as the diabolical being s.n.a.t.c.hed him up by the neck. The sound of searing meat replaced the choked-off cry and the apparition tossed the soldier aside like a broken toy. Jommy saw flame coming from the creature's hands and could feel heat waves emanating from it as its appearance continued to evolve. The grey-blue skin was now crisscrossed with glowing red cracks, looking like nothing so much as molten metal under a rock crust, and where rain struck it sizzled and gave off tiny explosions of steam.

Jommy leaped backward, almost falling as he crashed into a soldier coming up behind him. 'Sir!' the man shouted in his ear. 'Another two boats have put in to the north and more of the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are coming down on our right flank.'

Jommy hesitated, then realized the soldier must be waiting, and that he was a senior officer, or at least as far as the men near him were concerned. Something had to be done to avoid a total rout. 'On me!' he shouted. 'Rally to me!'

Men hurried to him while the now-flaming monster snagged another screaming man and ripped his arm off while his torso was engulfed in fire.

'Form circle!' shouted Jommy, and the men nearby gathered in a tight knot around him. To the soldier who had warned him of the move on their flank, he shouted, 'Find the General, and tell the others to fall back to wherever he is. We'll hold them here! Go!'

The messenger ran off.

'Shield wall!' was Jommy's next command, and the trained soldiers linked shields and suddenly he and two others, both irregulars from Krondor, stood in a tiny fortress of shields.

He had no faith in his order. Jommy knew that should the advancing monster strike the front of the shield wall, several of them would be instantly incinerated and the defensive position would collapse. But it was the only thing he could think of doing to buy a few minutes for the rest of the men to fall back to wherever Kaspar waited.

The creature stood motionless for a moment, and the magic-user pointed at the men cl.u.s.tered around Jommy with his staff and shouted something in the alien tongue. The creature took a great stride towards them and Jommy shouted, 'Steady!'

The creature halted for a moment, and raised his fist up high above them. Jommy shouted, 'Turtle!' He dropped his sword and sat down hard, yanking the two men next to him down to keep them from injury.

The men raised their shields overhead, and braced themselves as they would for a barrage of falling arrows. The flaming monster's fist, now the size of an anvil, crashed down on a pair of shields, causing one man to go to his knees and the other to collapse completely.

'b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l!' said one of the irregulars, his eyes wide in terror.

'Scatter!' shouted Jommy: confusion was the only way to save as many men as possible. The two irregulars crawled away, while the soldiers did as they had been trained, each man running off directly away from the centre of the turtle, putting as much s.p.a.ce as possible between themselves and their comrades. Those in the front fell straight back, then turned and fled.

Kaspar's own archers had attempted to hurt the creature, but their arrows were having no effect, the iron heads bouncing off the thing's hide while the shafts burst into flame. Waves of heat rolled over Jommy, as if he were standing before an open oven.

With a sweep of arms now as long as a spear, the creature knocked men aside as if he were playing with children. Whatever he touched burst into flames: men lay screaming and dying.

As Jommy pulled back, the creature seemed to notice him, and started towards him. Jommy braced himself, sure that in an instant he would be either crushed or burned to death. As he raised his sword to defend himself he saw beyond the creature a figure rising out of the surf. Water dripping off his face, his clothing soaked through, Jim Dasher seemed to appear out of nowhere as he came up from a low crouch to stand behind the magician. With a deft move so fast Jommy could barely follow it, the Krondorian thief raised his hands before him, crossed at the wrist, and flipped something over the magician's head. Suddenly the spell-caster was yanked backwards, as Jim brought his knee up into the magician's spine, and even with the pounding of the surf, the tattoo of the rain and the screams from dying men Jommy could hear the snap of the man's spine. Blood sprayed from the magician's neck and he waved his arms for a brief instant before going limp.

As the magician died, the creature faltered, and then stopped and looked around as if waiting to be told what to do next. He howled, an echoing sound that grated on the ears and sent shivers through Jommy's body. Then the monster lashed out, first one way, then another. Men scattered, even those wearing the black head-cloths more intent on putting s.p.a.ce between, themselves and the apparition than in continuing the fight. Jommy threw himself backwards, avoiding a sudden reversal of direction by the flaming creature, and rolled on the sand, coming to his feet in a crouch, his sword ready.

Then he saw Servan running in his direction, shouting something that Jommy couldn't make out, but pointing directly at him. At the same instant Jommy sensed someone behind him and realized that Servan wasn't pointing at him, but at something behind him. He fell to his left, rolled and turned, seeing the blade cut through the air that would have taken his head had Servan not warned him.

Jommy didn't even think of trying to stand, but instead lashed out with his sword, cutting the man across the heel, severing the tendon. The man screamed and almost fell on top of Jommy. Jommy now shoved his sword point into the raider's armpit. Blood flowed down the man's side as the raider tried to retaliate with a looping blow designed to take Jommy's arm off.

Jommy rolled again hearing the sword strike sand. Now he was on his back. Knowing this was as poor a position for a fight as could be, Jommy kept rolling until he could again see his opponent. Then someone stepped over him and a sword point thrust down, ending the raider's life.

Servan reached down and pulled Jommy to his feet. 'We've got to fall back!' shouted the young n.o.bleman. 'That thing is still killing anything near it, and it's getting hotter by the minute.'

Jommy didn't need his companion to tell him that; he could feel waves of heat rolling off the creature. Steam exploded from every step it took in the wet sand. Men on all sides were still locked in struggle, but there was nothing remotely organized about the conflict, and Jommy knew there was no way to coordinate any sort of counter-attack or even organize an orderly withdrawal. 'We need to have everyone fall back to that big rock over there!' Jommy shouted, pointing with his sword.

Servan nodded. 'I don't know where the General or the Captain are.'

They paused and looked up and down the cove, until Servan cried, 'Up there!'

Jommy saw Kaspar and Captain Stefan fighting back to back twenty yards up the hillside as half a dozen pirates circled them. Jommy looked at Servan.

'What now?'

Jommy was a good leader in the field and had a rudimentary grasp of tactics, but Servan was a born leader, a first rate strategist as well as an instinctive tactician. 'That big rock is our rally point, and I'll try to get to them-'

Jommy looked over again to where Kaspar and Stefan fought, and saw Jim Dasher again seemingly out of nowhere appear behind the two men fighting Kaspar. With a dagger in each hand he stabbed both men in the back of the neck, and they dropped instantly to the ground. Suddenly it wasn't six against two, but four against three, and as one of the men turned to see what happened to his companions, Kaspar ran him through and it was three against three.

Jommy shouted, 'I'll go this way, you go that, get the men moving! Get word to the General where we rally!'