"She's getting their attention, that's for sure," Sorgan replied, concealing his smile with one hand.

"Moreover," Aracia continued, "those who do not obey, and escape their rightful punishment will no longer be priests and therefore no longer welcome in my temple. Hear my command and obey without question. Gather together and proceed straight forth to that part of my holy temple which lies to the west. There will you—one and all—give assistance to those who have come here to defend me. You will do what they require without hesitation or complaint, and you will continue your labor until our defenses are complete." Then she motioned to Sorgan. "I'm not really very good at this, am I?" she said with some shame.

"You're doing just fine, lady," Sorgan replied. "You even surprised me just now."

"I must have done something right then. Now, what do you think I should do to any of these halfwits who refuse?"

"I've had a fair degree of success with a whip, lady," Sorgan replied. "Fifty lashes is usually about right. Then, after the others have seen a few of those floggings, I usually don't get any more arguments."

"I'm not sure if I could do something like that, Captain Hook-Beak."

"That's what you're paying me to do, lady. I'll take care of it for you." Then he turned to his second mate. "Herd them on out of here, Ham-Hand," he said.

"Aye, Cap'n," Ham-Hand replied.

Padan suddenly laughed when a peculiar thought came to him.

"What's so funny?" Sorgan asked.

"Since those priests will be working with our men, they should probably eat the same kind of food."

"Beans?" Sorgan asked.

"It would be fair, Sorgan, wouldn't you say?"

Sorgan started to laugh.

THE HORSE SOLDIERS

Chapter One

Prince Ekial of the Land of the Malavi had been just a bit edgy about the presence of Lord Dahlaine's pet sun. She was giving them all the light they needed, and she was holding back the bitter chill of winter there in the far north, but the concept of using a miniature sun as a house-pet made Ekial just a bit nervous. The "What ifs" kept nagging at him.

He'd spent some time with Longbow in Dahlaine's "map room" carefully studying Dahlaine's miniature duplication of the rounded-down range of mountains Longbow had decided would be the best course to follow on their way on down to the upper end of Long-Pass. Ekial hadn't made a big issue of it, but he was rather looking forward to being separated from the Trogites and the Maags. They'd been very useful during the war in Crystal Gorge, but their superior attitude had rubbed Ekial the wrong way on several occasions, so he felt a certain relief when the mountain range became visible on the eastern horizon.

Longbow's friend, Red-Beard, pulled his horse, Seven, in alongside Ekial. "How's our day gone so far?" he asked.

"Mine just got a bit better," Ekial replied. "Now we've reached the mountains, we'll be moving off in a different direction from the Trogites and the pirates. That will probably warm my heart. Don't get me wrong, Red-Beard, I like them, but they move so slow. I could have been here three days ago."

"That's one of the nice things about riding a horse," Red-Beard agreed. "Old Seven here doesn't move very fast, but he could run circles around those foot-soldiers. Of course, he won't have to run for a while. I get to sit here until Skell delivers the archers from Chief Old-Bear's tribe. Then Seven and I'll guide them on down to the upper end of Long-Pass."

"Longbow told me that the archers of that tribe are the best in the whole world," Ekial said.

Red-Beard smiled. "Every tribe believes that they're the best," he said. "Longbow himself is the best in the world, but the others in his tribe aren't nearly as good as he is." Red-Beard hesitated slightly. "You don't necessarily have to tell him that I said that he's the best," he added. "He doesn't need to know that I believe that."

Ekial laughed. "Your secret's safe with me, friend Red-Beard," he said. Then he added, "Doesn't he ever smile?"

"Oh—once or twice a year, I'd say. Every so often he'll even smile three times if it's a very good year."

Longbow would be going on ahead, so getting the Tonthakans and Matans to the west end of Long-Pass would be Ekial's responsibility.

Longbow asked him if he had the route firmly in mind.

"I spent as much time looking at Dahlaine's map as you did, Longbow," Ekial replied. "Won't it be just a little dangerous for you to travel alone, though? The bug-people will be coming this way. That much is certain. I could send a party of horsemen with you."

Longbow shook his head. "They'd only slow me down," he replied.

"You don't really believe that you can run faster than a horse, do you?" Ekial demanded.

"Not faster," Longbow replied. "Longer beats faster almost any time at all."

"How long would you say that you can run?"

"Twenty hours or so, anyway, and I can eat while I'm running."

"That raises another problem, friend Longbow," Red-Beard said. "Horses are nice enough, I suppose, but they do have to eat, and I don't see very much grass around here."

"I was just about to ask you the same question," Ekial told the archer. "We have to find grass."

Longbow shrugged. "Tell your men to keep their eyes out for bison. They eat grass just like your horses do. When you see a bison with his head down, he's probably eating. Chase him away and you'll have happy horses in just a little while. Is there anything else?"

"Is it always this cold around here in the wintertime?"

"The local people have told me that it is. Be glad that it's cold now, though. If it starts to warm up, there's probably a blizzard coming your way."

"I've heard the locals talking about blizzards a few times," Ekial said. "Are they really all that bad?"

"You might want to talk with Two-Hands about that. He was caught in one near the village of Asmie when he was very young. He had to dig a cave in the snow to survive."

Ekial shuddered, and decided not to pursue that. "Let's move on, shall we?" he suggested.

Since Dahlaine's little toy sun would be going with the Maags and Trogites, there wasn't too much daylight left, so they set up camp for the night before they'd gone very far to the south. Ekial was fairly sure that they should start out at first light each day. The horses could cover a fair distance in six or seven hours, but the Tonthakans and Matans couldn't move that fast, and to make things even worse, the Malavi were going to have to find grass for their horses every day, and that promised to slow things down to a crawl.