‘Sounding?’ Narasan had asked, just a bit puzzled.

‘Check the depth of the water - or locate any reefs or hidden boulders. A ship that’s just had her bottom ripped out won’t stay afloat for very long, and I haven’t learned how to walk on water yet.’

The coast of Lady Zelana’s Domain was heavily forested by huge trees that filled Narasan with awe. The forest in the lower reaches of the ravine had been clogged with dense brush, but out here on the coast the huge trees had evidently smothered out the bushes with a perpetual drizzle of falling needles, and they stood in solitary splendor, almost like some vast green temple. The air here along the coast was humid, of course, and the rays of the early summer sun slanted down among the column-like trees like shafts of gold. Narasan felt a strange sense of regret when the forest gave way to the farmland of Veltan’s Domain.

Then, a few days after they’d set out, the mellow sound of a horn came from the Seagull, and Sorgan’s longship pulled in closer. ‘Ho, Narasan!’ Sorgan bellowed.

‘Is something amiss?’ Narasan called back.

‘Not that I know about. Lady Zelana wanted me to let you know that we’ll be turning east before long - maybe sometime tomorrow. We’ll go on around the southern end of her brother’s country and then swing north. His house is on up the east coast a ways. From what she tells me, we’re a week or ten days out yet.’

They rounded the lower end of a sizeable peninsula about mid-morning the next day, and Gunda came back from the bow of the ship with his cousin, Captain Pantal. ‘If you look off to the right, you’ll see that island called Arash, Narasan,’ Gunda advised. ‘Maybe it might not be a bad idea for me to go on over to another ship and sail down through that channel to Castano and tell Andar to bring the main part of our army on up here. That way we’ll be ready just in case the war starts sooner than we expect it to.’

‘That’s not a bad idea, Gunda,’ Narasan agreed. ‘I’ll talk with Sorgan and let him know that you’re not just running away.’

Gunda gave him a hard look, but he didn’t say anything.

The Seagull drew closer in response to a brassy note from a standard Trogite trumpet. It occurred to Narasan that the horns of the Maags had a much more mellow sound to them. For some reason the sound of trumpets had always irritated Narasan.

Sorgan was standing at the rail as the Seagull came in closer. ‘Problems, Narasan?’ he called.

‘Not that I’ve noticed so far,’ Narasan replied. ‘Of course it’s still early, so there’s plenty of time left for today to turn sour on us.’

‘Why do you always look on the dark side, Narasan?’

‘It’s a failing of mine. We’re fairly close to the channel that leads down through the ice zone to the north coast of the Empire. Gunda’s going to sail on down there and gather up the rest of the army and bring them on up here.’

‘That’s not a bad idea, Narasan. It’ll save some time, and we’ll be ready if the snake-men try to sneak up on us again.’

‘And you accuse me of being gloomy.’

‘Always look on the dark side, Narasan. Then if things turn out all right, it’s a pleasant surprise.’

They sailed on past two more of those protruding peninsulas on the south coast of the Land of Dhrall, and then the mixed fleet turned north to sail along behind the Seagull as Lady Zelana guided Sorgan toward the home of her younger brother.

The land along that eastern coast was much more flat than the western coast, and Narasan observed that the farmers of Veltan’s domain had vast fields of grain stretching inland for as far as the eye could reach. Veltan hadn’t gone into much detail when he’d described his Domain, but Narasan was quite certain that the class distinctions prevalent in the Empire simply did not exist here. The scrawny former priest Jalkan stubbornly refused to even consider that possibility, and his perpetual sneer irritated Narasan so much that he began to search for any possible excuse to dismiss the scoundrel and send him packing.

As they sailed along the coast, Sorgan Hook-Beak prudently sent Veltan’s fishing sloop on ahead of the Seagull to test the waters for obstructions. Narasan smiled faintly. Sorgan quite obviously loved the Seagull, and he’d go to any lengths to protect her. In a peculiar sort of way, the Seagullwas the equivalent of Sorgan’s wife, and he’d sooner die than put her in any kind of danger.

They moved slowly on up the east coast for the next few days and then about mid-morning on the third day, the sloop turned sharply to the left and led them on toward the beach. Narasan shaded his eyes and saw Veltan and some others waiting.

Captain Pantal dropped anchor a short distance from the beach, and Narasan, Jalkan, and Padan took a small skiff the rest of the way in. Narasan noted that Sorgan was also in a skiff, along with Ox, Ham-Hand, Zelana, and the two children, but he seemed to be holding back just bit - obviously out of courtesy. That surprised Narasan a little. The notion of courtesy in a Maag seemed like a contradiction in terms.

Keselo and the others had already joined Veltan, and Keselo was talking with a serious-faced native who was holding a somewhat makeshift spear.

Keselo seemed to be quite impressed by the native’s creativity, and he suggested a rather interesting possibility. If the clever little smith called Rabbit could provide all the natives with spear-points and shields, they could be trained to some degree to utilize the phalanx formation. They probably wouldn’t be first-rate soldiers to begin with, but it wasn’t as if the creatures of the Wasteland were tactical geniuses. Even if the natives were only partially trained, they could be very useful in the upcoming war. ‘Do you think you could train them, Keselo?’ Narasan asked the young officer.

‘I’d be willing to give it a try, sir,’ Keselo replied.

‘Do it then, and keep me advised.’

‘Yes, sir!’ Keselo replied with a smart salute.

After Sorgan and his friends came ashore, Veltan led them all along a well-traveled path that led inland.

When Narasan saw Veltan’s single-rock castle, it confirmed something he had suspected from the moment the two of them had first met. Veltan - and his brother and sisters as well - might look as if they were human, but it was quite obvious now that they’d gone so far past human that the term was almost laughable. Veltan’s somewhat self-effacing manner had concealed some stunning realities, but the huge house brought reality out into the open with no possible way to deny it. The baffling part of what was now right out in the open was why a being with such unlimited power had come to Imperial Kaldacin to hire an army to deal with a sub-human enemy. Narasan was fairly certain that Veltan - or his sister - could have obliterated the creatures of the Wasteland with a single thought. ‘We’ve got a very strange situation here,’ he muttered to himself.