Crystal Gorge

“I don’t know either,” the captive replied sullenly.

“You know perfectly well that this is the Tonthakan Nation,” Chief Kadlar declared.

“Oh, that’s right,” the captive replied. “It must have just slipped my mind.”

“Why don’t you say it a few times, friend?” Rabbit suggested. “That might help you to remember.”

“I don’t take orders from strangers,” the fellow said.

Ox raised his broad-bladed axe. “This tells you that Rabbit’s not a stranger,” he growled. “It says that you’re going to do exactly what he tells you to if you want to keep your health. Now say ‘Tonthakan,’ or you’ll make my axe very grouchy.”

The fellow glowered at Ox and mumbled something.

“I can’t hear you!” Ox said.

“Tonthakan!” The fellow sort of spit it out, and Athlan definitely heard the click-sound Keselo had described, and he caught a peculiar sort of odor that somehow removed what they were supposed to be listening for from his memory.

“Very nice,” Ox said, patting the fellow’s shoulder with his free hand. Then he turned to the second man. “Now it’s your turn,” he said.

“Tonthakan,” the second one said, sounding a bit relieved.

“I didn’t hear anything all that peculiar, did you, Longbow,” Athlan said.

Then, without any warning whatsoever, Ox brained the two with his axe, splashing blood all over everybody standing nearby.

The strange odor was suddenly gone, and Athlan vividly remembered the loud click he’d heard when the two had said the word “Tonthakan.”

“What’s going on here?” Chief Kadlar demanded. He looked down at the two bleeding bodies. “I thought that I knew these two, but I’ve never even seen them before.”

“These two are—were—servants of the Vlagh, Kadlar,” Dahlaine told him, “and they tricked you into believing them.”

“How?”

“They were emitting a peculiar smell that convinced you that they were telling you the truth. The smell also persuaded you you’d been insulted, when nothing had been done—or said—by any member of the Deer Hunter Tribes. There’s a war coming this way, and these two are—were—enemies. They were trying their best to trick you into going to war with the Deer Hunter Tribes so that there wouldn’t be any archers to hold off their friends when they invaded.” Dahlaine frowned and looked at Ox. “How did you manage to avoid being tricked by that odor they were putting out?”

“I didn’t smell a thing, Lord Dahlaine,” Ox replied. “I never do when I’m ashore at this time of the year. I sneeze a lot, and my eyes start running, and I can’t smell anything at all. When I’m out at sea, I don’t have any problems, but just the sight of land at this time of the year makes me start sneezing.”

Dahlaine suddenly laughed. “I think we owe you for every sneeze, Ox,” he said with a broad grin.

“I’ll start keeping count, then,” Ox said with a chuckle.

“I must go down to Statha and apologize to Chief Kathlak,” Kadlar declared. “I just hope that he’ll forgive me.”

“You can do that later, Kadlar,” Dahlaine said. “What you really need to do now is to go tell all the other chiefs of Reindeer Land that we’ve got an enemy that’s trying to trick them into going to war with the Deer Hunter Tribes.” He reached inside his furry jacket and took out a white object that looked very much like a piece of rock-salt. “Wave this under their noses. It’ll erase that scent the servants of the Vlagh use to deceive your people. Tell them to kill the smelly ones and then gather up all their warriors and archers and go on down to the village of Statha. We’re just about to go to war with the creatures of the Wasteland, and we want to be ready when they attack.”

“I shall do as you have commanded, Lord Dahlaine,” Kadlar promised.

“Good boy,” Dahlaine replied.

4

They returned to Statha the following morning, and the people of the tribe all seemed to view the seasonal malady which had made it impossible for Ox to catch even a hint of the strange scent the creatures of the Wasteland had used as a gift from Dahlaine.

“Actually, I didn’t have a thing to do with that,” Dahlaine confessed to his sister. “Ox told us that he sneezes and coughs every autumn if he happens to be on dry land. Once he’s out at sea, it goes away. It was definitely useful up in Reindeer country, though. It turned out to be almost as valuable as gold.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of golden sneezes before, dear brother,” Zelana replied, smiling.

“Now that we’ve broken the grip the servants of the Vlagh had on the Reindeer Tribes I think we’d better advise all the tribes that it’s time to prepare for war. Just the fact that there were servants of the Vlagh tampering with the Reindeer Tribes is a fairly strong indication that the Vlagh will come north before long.”

“You could be right, Dahlaine,” Zelana agreed.

“I’d say that it’s just about time for you to set up your arrow factory again, Rabbit,” Red-Beard suggested. “Would you rather set it up on the beach or here in Statha?”

“All of our equipment is on the ships,” Rabbit replied. “I think it’d be better to do it there—unless it starts to rain.”

“How long is it likely to take?” Dahlaine asked.

Rabbit squinted at the roof of the lodge. “The casting won’t take all that long,” he said. “I’ve got all those baked clay molds we used back in Lattash stored in the hold of the Seagull, so all we’ll have to do is melt the bronze we brought up here and pour it into the molds. I’d say that we’ll have barrels full of arrowheads in about a week or so. Then Longbow and Red-Beard can show Athlan and his friends how to replace their stone arrowheads with the bronze ones and we’ll be ready to fight another war.”

“I’ll send runners to all the tribes in Tonthakan,” Kathlak said. “We should let them know that we’re just about to go to war and let them see these new arrowheads. This might take a while, but I’m sure that we’ll have about fifty thousand archers available when the invasion begins.”

“How long would you say it’s likely to take before you’re ready?” Dahlaine asked.