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.Her eyes were losing focus as he said, ‘My goodness, but you are an attractive woman.I never really noticed that.I think I found you off-putting at first because you are so.determined.You walk around with that frown and your eyes.glaring.I see why Pug fell in love with you, though I do find I prefer women who are more.submissive.But it would be fun to nail you to a wall and see how determined you remained while I did things to you with all the toys the Tsurani.have invented for interrogation.They have quite a collection in a museum at the Assembly, you know.’Someone was coming up the hill behind her, but Miranda was too stupefied to move, let alone turn and look.Leso Varen used his staff to push himself to his feet as powerful hands gripped her shoulders and pulled her upright.‘I’d like you to meet two new friends of mine,’ said Varen, ‘These are, if I have it right, Desoddo and Mirab.’Miranda was jerked around and found herself looking into the face of an alien, a being with a slender skull, greyish skin and black eyes.‘They are what the Dasati called "Deathpriests", and they are going to have a lot of fun with you, I think.Pity I won’t be there, but I have other matters to arrange.‘You see, my new friends and I have come to an understanding.I’m going to help them seize Kelewan, and in exchange, they’re going to help me conquer Midkemia.Isn’t that a wonderful arrangement?’Without a word, the two Dasati Deathpriests jerked Miranda around and began to drag her downhill towards the black energy dome.As she fell into unconsciousness, the last thing she heard was Varen humming an odd little tune.* * *‘Oh, damn,’ said Tad as he peered over the rise.‘Yes,’ whispered Servan.‘Damn, indeed.’‘What are we going to do?’ asked Zane, from a few feet behind.Jommy squatted.The four of them were hunkered down below a rise and at the bottom waited the twenty soldiers - now all grudgingly obedient - Grandy, and Godfrey.‘How fast can you get back to the General?’ asked Jommy.Tad thought.‘I can run to the boat.That should take no more than a half hour.If I go across the river, then run up the shore - that’s got to be faster than rowing against the current - four, maybe three and a half hours if I can do it without stopping.’Tad was unquestionably the best runner among the six boys, perhaps the best in the entire Roldemish army.‘That will get you to him before nightfall.If he sends sixty men by boat at night, they can be here easily before sunrise.So all we have to do is keep them from moving before tomorrow.’He glanced over the ridge one more time to look at the enemy and ducked back down.The Salmater offensive wasn’t coming across the river where the General expected it; it was coming across the river here.Once that force was moving into Olasko proper, finding them among the hundreds of islands would be as big a problem as dislodging them once they were found.But if they could be kept on this beach, even for a few hours tomorrow, they could attempt a retreat back across the river.With sixty fresh soldiers holding this ridge, and the promise of more arriving soon after.‘How do we keep them from going around us?’ Jommy asked Servan.He motioned for the other boys to shimmy down the side of the ridge and at the bottom he said, ‘If they think we’re only holding this ridge, they’ll flank us to the south.So, we have to make them think we’ve got soldiers everywhere.’ He glanced upward.‘Wait a minute.’ He crawled up on his elbows to the ridge, looked at the deploying Salmater soldiers, then headed back down again.‘They are still unloading,’ said Servan.Looking at the afternoon sun, he said, ‘I don’t know if they’re going to try to march across this island and set up on that next one over there—’ he pointed to a distant island separated from the one they were on by a broad, shallow rill from the river, ‘—or camp here for the night.If they think they’re undiscovered, they may not be in a hurry.’Jommy looked at Tad.‘You’d better be off, no matter what.Tell the General to come down fast with every man he can spare.’ As Tad started to move, Jommy reached out and grabbed his arm.‘Hey, tell the boat crew to head downstream.If they scout around the north side of the island, I don’t think it would be a good thing for the boat to be seen.Have them hide somewhere.’Tad said, ‘I’ve got it.’‘And keep from getting killed,’ said Zane.Tan grinned and ran off without another word.Jommy turned to Servan and said, ‘So, how are we going to make them think there’s an army over there if they decide to move?’Servan said, ‘I have no idea.’CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - BetrayalMiranda awoke in pain.The two figures above her were speaking, but she could not understand what they said.Not only was the tongue foreign to her, but her senses were dulled: it sounded as if they were talking under water.She was tied to a table of some sort, unable to move anything but her head, and that only slightly.She tried to breathe, but the effort taxed her: her lungs hurt as if she was suffering from too little air.She tried to focus her mind, to gather together enough energy to free herself, but something was making concentration difficult.‘She awakes.’ She didn’t need to know who spoke.The voice was that of Leso Varen, now in the body of the Tsurani magician Wyntakata.The figure closest to her bent over her and spoke, in the Tsurani language, but with a strange accent.‘Do not move,’ he instructed her calmly and without menace.‘You will feel pain for a while.It will pass.’ He stood back up and motioned around him.‘This place is suitable for both our races, but you will need time to adapt.’‘What do you want here?’ she asked, finding it difficult to speak.‘If I may?’ Varen’s voice came from just outside her field of vision.Then his face was hovering over hers.He spoke in the King’s Tongue, which made Miranda certain he didn’t want the Dasati Deathpriests understanding what he said.‘It’s simple, really.The Dasati are a race of children, in a way; if you can imagine a few million two-year-olds running around with very sharp blades, powerful death-magic, and an urge to break everything in sight.‘But like toddlers everywhere, if they see something pretty and shining, they want it.And to them, the worlds of the first realm of reality are very pretty indeed; much brighter, much shinier than their worlds.So, in a short while there will be thousands of very tall children in armour running amok through this lovely empire shouting, "Mine! Mine! Mine!" as they kill, pillage and burn.Isn’t that wonderful?’‘You’re insane,’ Miranda choked out.‘Almost certainly,’ said Varen.He looked over to the two Deathpriests, and said, ‘But compared to them, I am the soul of reason.You will long for these moments we’ve spent together when their priests are working on you.’ He looked at the two Deathpriests and said, ‘I’ve finished now.’Miranda saw one of the two tall Dasati prelates put out his hand, placing something over her nose and mouth that was pungent and bitter, and suddenly she was swallowed up by darkness.* * *Some while later, Servan said, ‘I have an idea.’‘Good,’ whispered Jommy, ‘because I certainly do not have one
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