“Veltan told me that he might be able to lend me some of his Trogite soldiers,” she was saying, “but I suppose that might depend on how soon he can get them here to Dhrall.”

“I’ll talk with him,” the grey-bearded man promised. “Veltan’s just a bit reticent sometimes. Are the Dhralls of your Domain gathering to meet the invaders?”

“Chief White-Braid was dealing with that while Eleria and I were busy over in Maag. I hate to admit this, Dahlaine, but I really should have paid more attention to what’s been going on here in the West. There are some very serious animosities between several tribes that I might have been able to smooth over if I hadn’t spent all those years swimming with my dolphins. Fortunately, when White-Braid and Old-Bear joined together, they were fairly intimidating. Some of the tribes here didn’t really want to join with the others, but they were prudent enough not to say so.”

“Have you told your Maags about the true nature of the servants of the Vlagh yet?” the bearded Dahlaine asked his sister.

“Do we really want to go into the details before Veltan’s Trogites arrive, Dahlaine?” she said a bit dubiously. “Once our outlander armies are here, we can keep them here, but if the word gets out too soon . . .” She left it hanging.

“You could be right, dear sister,” Dahlaine conceded. He looked sternly at Rabbit. “Can we trust this one?” he asked.

“I think so. He’s more clever than he appears to be, and he and Longbow are fairly close. There are still a few things he doesn’t need to know quite yet. Why don’t we let Longbow decide when to tell the outlanders what they’ll be coming up against?”

“I think we should let One-Who-Heals describe our enemies to the Maags and the Trogites,” Longbow suggested. “He knows much more about our enemies than anyone else. He trapped one of them when I was just a boy, and after it died, he boiled all the meat off so that only the bones were left. Then he showed me all of the creature’s peculiarities. They aren’t really very hard to kill, but one needs to be a bit cautious. I’ll be speaking with Chief Old-Bear soon, and I’ll ask him to speak with One-Who-Heals about this.”

“That might be the best way to handle this, Dahlaine,” Zelana said.

Rabbit looked at them suspiciously. There was something ominous about all this, and it was making him more than just a little uneasy.

Just then Red-Beard entered the cave. “You wanted to speak with me, Zelana?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “I think you and Longbow should show the members of the other tribes your new arrowheads and give them a few demonstrations. Sometimes people object to new things. Show them how well the new arrowheads work. Rabbit, I want you to go tell Hook-Beak that I want every loose bit of iron on every ship in his fleet, and I’ll need the use of everybody who knows the least bit about working with iron. We’re going to need as many iron-tipped arrows as possible.”

Rabbit sighed. “Somehow I knew that something like this was going to turn up. Pounding out arrowheads day after day’s likely to get tedious after a while.”

“But you’re the expert, Bunny,” Eleria reminded him. “After you show the other iron-pounders how it’s done, you’ll spend all your time watching and telling them if they’re doing it wrong.”

“That’s true, I suppose. When you get right down to it, I’ll be the captain of the smiths, won’t I?” The notion of being able to give orders instead of taking them lit a warm little fire in his heart.

“Don’t let it go to your head,” Zelana advised.

3

Rabbit set up his arrow shop on the beach near Zelana’s cave, and there was trouble right from the start. The smiths from the other Maag ships objected violently when Rabbit told them that they’d be required to contribute every scrap of iron on board their ships, and they really didn’t care much for the notion of working from dawn to dusk for weeks on end. A sea-going smith normally has life fairly easy. He might occasionally have to repair a pot for the ship’s cook, repair a broken pulley, or sharpen a few swords and axes, but that was usually the extent of his labor.

“I don’t see the point of this,” Hammer, the bull-shouldered smith from the Shark, the ship of Sorgan’s cousin Skell, declared. “We’re the ones who’ll do all the fighting, aren’t we? If these natives are too timid to fight their own wars, they won’t be of much use when the fighting starts.”

“I’m not so sure about that, Hammer,” one of the ironsmiths who’d been in the harbor of Kweta during Kajak’s failed attempt on the Seagull said. “I’ve seen what that tall one they call Longbow can do with arrows when he sets his mind to it, and every enemy the Dhralls kill from a long way off is one less that we’ll have to kill up close.”

“I still think it’s a waste of time and good iron,” Hammer declared stubbornly.

Longbow came out of the cave just then, and Rabbit saw a quick way to put an end to all the complaining. “Are you busy right now?” he asked his friend.

“Not really, Rabbit. Why?”

“Hammer here doesn’t quite see the point of what we’re doing. I think this might go smoother if you show him and some of the others what you can do with your bow. Why don’t you prove it to them?”

“No trouble at all,” Longbow agreed. He looked around the beach and then went down to the water’s edge and picked up a clamshell. Then he came back and handed it to Hammer. “Why don’t you take this on down the beach?” he said. “I’ll show you what a well-aimed arrow can do.”

“That’s a pretty small target,” Hammer said dubiously.

“I’ve got good eyes. Hold it up over your head as you go so that I can see it.”

Hammer grumbled a bit, but he started on down the beach holding the clamshell up over his head. “About here?” he called back after he’d gone a hundred paces.

“Farther,” Longbow replied.

Hammer kept walking “Here?” he called at two hundred paces.

“Farther,” Longbow called back.

“This is silly!” Hammer shouted as he walked on down the beach.

“Do you think that might be far enough to persuade them?” Longbow asked Rabbit.

“If you can hit it from here, I don’t think we’ll get any more arguments about this.”