There was quite a bit of storytelling at first. Our friends had been widely scattered during the actual war—if what had happened up there had really been a war. To my way of looking at things, our contributions this time had been minimal at best. Longbow’s “Unknown Friend” had done most of the work. Of course, Ashad’s dream had produced the flood, but the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that “Unknown Friend” had been tampering with Ashad since the very beginning. The “second invasion” in Ashad’s first dream had provided a huge force that had met the invasion of the servants of the Vlagh with enough force to hold them in place until the flood destroyed both enemies.
“Let me tell you, old friend,” Sorgan was saying to Narasan, “we ran on up out of that basin like a fox with his tail on fire. Those earthquakes that set everything to bouncing around raised a lot of memories about the fire-mountains back in the ravine, and the notion of getting cooked alive can make a man run about twice as fast as he ever thought he could.”
“It was a sensible thing to do, Sorgan,” Narasan said. “None of us knew exactly what was going to happen, so getting out of the way made a lot of sense.”
“I seem to remember that ‘get out of the way’ was something Longbow’s dream lady told him forty or fifty times every time he closed his eyes,” Rabbit added. “She knew what she was talking about, all right.” The little man squinted slightly. “Whatever happened to that greedy one who started that second invasion? Did he get drowned like all the other Church people did?”
“I don’t think he was still around when the flood broke lose,” Padan said.
“What happened to him?”
“He got et.”
“Et?”
“Eaten,” Padan explained. “He and that fat friend of his were trying to run on down the slope to gather up bucketsful of that pretty but worthless sand out there, but they got all tangled up in a spiderweb along the way—and the spider most likely had them for lunch—while they were still alive and screaming for help.”
Rabbit scratched his chin. “That sounds about right to me,” he said. “They deserved something like that, I suppose. I’d say that they’d earned something more than an arrow in the forehead or a sword in the belly.”
“Omago seemed to approve,” Keselo added.
“This is all over and done with,” my sister Aracia said tartly. “I think it’s time for us to move on. The first thing we should do is consider just where the Vlagh will strike next, and start making preparations.”
“Don’t we have to wait until one of the children has one of those dreams?” Zelana suggested. “We won’t really know where the Vlagh will strike next until we have a dream to work with.”
“I think you’re overlooking something, little sister.” Aracia replied. “Your Domain, and now Veltan’s as well, are both permanently blocked off. The Vlagh only has two options now—Dahlaine’s Domain in the North, and mine in the East. That narrows things considerably, so I think we should prepare for both possibilities.”
At that point Aracia’s hired warrior queen Trenicia stepped forward. “Ekial and I have discussed this at some length,” she told us, “and we pretty much agree that the presence of Narasan and Sorgan could be very useful when our enemies attack the North and the East. They’ve had much experience with those monsters, so they’ll be able to warn us if we’re making mistakes. Then too, if their armies come with them, we should have more than enough warriors to eliminate the creatures permanently.”
“What do you think, Narasan?” Sorgan asked.
“As long as we get paid, I don’t see any problems,” Narasan said.
“I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out,” sister Zelana told them with a faint smile.
Then the door opened, and the beautiful wife of Veltan’s friend Omago came out onto the balcony. “Dinner’s ready,” she announced in that vibrant voice of hers.
Then something came to me that set my senses to reeling. It had been the appearance of Ara that had stirred Jalkan to the point that he’d said things that nobody in his right mind would have said, and those remarks had moved Narasan to the revocation of Jalkan’s commission and his imprisonment on board one of the Trogite ships in the harbor. Then, when Jalkan had escaped, he’d gone off to the south and had returned with the five Church armies that had, in effect, defeated the servants of the Vlagh. It was remotely possible that there had been no connection between those various events, but . . .
I stared at the beautiful lady in awe. Could it possibly be that Ara was our “Unknown Friend?” If she was, her powers went so far beyond mine or my brother’s or sister’s that I couldn’t even comprehend what she might be capable of.
Then her voice spoke to me in the silence of my mind. “Not now, child,” she said. “We can talk about this some other time.”
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