Crystal Gorge

Then Kathlak, the chief of the Deer Hunter Tribes in Tonthakan, said, “Why don’t we come right out and tell the outlanders that if the servants of the Vlagh win any of the wars here, there won’t be any live people anywhere in the world before very long?”

“They wouldn’t believe us, Kathlak,” Tlantar Two-Hands said. “The outlanders are positive that they’re much, much more intelligent than we are—largely because they discovered metal before we did.”

“When you get right down to it, we don’t really need the outlanders anymore,” the archer Athlan declared. “We might want to hold on to Rabbit—and maybe Keselo—but if something comes up that we can’t deal with ourselves, Longbow’s ‘unknown friend’ will probably take care of it for us. She built a sea of water down in Veltan’s Domain, and then she built a sea of fire up here. If we have a friend who can do things like that, why do we need any outlander armies?”

Balacenia decided that it was time to take steps at that point. She assumed Eleria’s form and joined the assorted chieftains. “That was a nice idea, Athlan,” she said, “but aren’t you overlooking something? If the Vlagh sees that the outlanders aren’t with us anymore, she’ll become more and more certain that she’s going to win this war after all, and that means that she’ll throw everything she’s got against us, and the Vlagh can spawn out new servants—millions and millions of them—when she wants to. Bugs become adults in about a week or so, and that means that every warrior here in the Land of Dhrall will have a thousand or so facing him during the war in the East. Then, after she’s killed off all the people here in the Land of Dhrall, she’ll spawn out even more servants, and she’ll take the whole world. We might not like the outlanders all that much, but we do need them.”

“What if they decide that they don’t want to play anymore?” Kathlak demanded.

Balacenia shrugged. “We can always offer them more gold, can’t we? If you give an outlander more gold than he can carry, I’m sure that he’ll do almost anything that you want him to do.”

3

It was somewhat later that afternoon when Dahlaine announced that it was time for the traditional victory celebration. Balacenia found it to be somewhat amusing when she realized that Mother, who’d won the war in Crystal Gorge, was now preparing the feast that would be a major part of the celebration.

Balacenia moved quietly and inconspicuously around Dahlaine’s cave listening as the outlanders spoke with each other in awed tones about the conflagration of blue fire that had incinerated the servants of the Vlagh in the space of only a few minutes.

The somewhat overly educated young Trogite called Keselo spoke at some length about the enormous power of what the outlanders called a “cyclone.”

“Normally, a fire would have gone up the gorge rather than down,” Keselo declared, “but when you’re dealing with a cyclone, normal goes right out the window. A cyclone can almost tear down a mountain. The cyclone that went down Crystal Gorge pulled the blue fire along behind it, and the fire burned anything the cyclone hadn’t smashed down into tiny fragments. The enemies that hadn’t been ripped to pieces by the cyclone were incinerated by that blue fire.” Keselo paused, squinting at the ceiling. “I’d say that we had a case of ‘tampering’ again. A normal cyclone would almost certainly not have followed the gorge all the way down to the Wasteland. A cyclone is wind, and wind goes where it wants to go. Somebody grabbed hold of that cyclone and literally hurled it down the gorge.”

“Then we probably owe Longbow’s ‘unknown friend’ a whole lot of kisses, wouldn’t you say?” Balacenia added.

“I’m not going to kiss somebody who can do things like that,” Sorgan’s cousin Skell declared. “If I just happened to get it wrong, she could jerk out all of my insides—through my nose—if she really wanted to.”

“Or, she might decide to turn you inside out, brother,” Torl said with a grin. “You’d look very peculiar with your insides right out in the open like that.”

“Please don’t say things like that, Torl,” Gunda said. “That one almost took a big bite out of my stomach.”

“So beat me,” Torl replied with a broad grin.

“Supper’s ready,” Mother announced. “Come and get it before it turns cold.”

Balacenia had a peculiar sort of thought then. Since Mother enjoyed cooking as much as she obviously did, why was it that the gods of the Land of Dhrall didn’t eat?

“We’ll talk about that some other time, Dear Heart,” Mother’s voice said softly. “Now go eat your supper.”

After the guests had all finished eating, Dahlaine of the grey beard rose to his feet to make a speech. For some reason, Dahlaine made speeches almost every time he turned around. “I most definitely want to thank our friends from the other side of the world for the victory we’ve achieved here in the North. I must advise them, however, that there still remains one part of the Land of Dhrall that has not yet known war, since it’s quite obvious that the Vlagh will not just walk away and leave sister Aracia’s Domain behind. An attack on the East will certainly come before long; we should make plans to protect the East.”

“If I may,” Narasan said, rising to his feet with a certain reluctance. “My men and I spent some time in Lady Aracia’s Domain, and I sent Sub-Commander Andar out to speak with the natives and make an assessment of the defensibility of Lady Aracia’s temple-town and of the capabilities—or lack of them—in the local population. Why don’t you tell our friends what you encountered, Andar?”

The deep-voiced officer rose to his feet. “As nearly as Brigadier Danal and I were able to determine, the place called ‘temple-town’ is totally indefensible. It has no walls, and no fortifications of any kind whatsoever. As for expecting any help at all from the local population, forget it. They don’t even know what weapons are.” Andar scratched his chin. “Commander Narasan was finally able to persuade Lady Aracia to create what we’ve come to call a ‘lumpy map.’ Brigadier Danal and I examined that map quite closely, and, so far as we could determine, there’s only one possible invasion route. It’s called ‘Long-Pass,’ and it’s definitely long, but ‘pass’ may not be quite so accurate. It’s an ancient streambed that wanders quite a bit. There are several excellent places for forts, and I strongly suggest that if we are going down there, we should concentrate on building those forts.”