Crystal Gorge

“Why didn’t you say so?” Narasan demanded, pulling on his uniform.

“I just did. You don’t really have to rush, Glorious Commander. Gunda’s taking our visitors on a tour of his fort. You know how Gunda loves to show off. I’m sure that he’s boring the children almost to tears.”

“Dahlaine and the others brought the children with them?” Narasan found that a bit disturbing. “That’s not really a very good idea. The bug-people haven’t attacked yet, but they are out there.”

“Actually, they’re not,” Padan said. “The Malavi went out just before daybreak to see what our enemies have been up to, and so far as they were able to determine, there’s not a single bug anywhere in the gorge. That might explain why Dahlaine and his family decided to pay us a call. On the bright side of this, Dahlaine brought the farmer Omago and his wife along as well, and Ara of the pretty feet is making breakfast.”

“Are you having fun yet, Padan?” Narasan sourly asked his friend.

“Just doing my job, Mighty Leader,” Padan replied with a broad grin.

Narasan grunted and went up the narrow stairway that led to the top of the front wall of Gunda’s fort.

“Ah, there you are, Commander,” the grey-bearded Dahlaine said. “I’m sorry that we had to wake you, but this sudden disappearance of our enemies is a bit disturbing. Were you able to pick up any hints about why they all went away?”

“I didn’t even know that they’d left,” Narasan replied. “Prince Ekial told us that they were still there yesterday evening.”

“Maybe they took one look at your fort and decided that they didn’t want to play anymore,” Sorgan suggested with a grin.

“Their minds don’t work that way, Sorgan,” Zelana said.

“Are we sure that they haven’t gone back to burrowing down under the ground again?” Red-Beard asked.

Longbow shook his head. “They haven’t had that much time,” he said. “That’s not bare dirt out there, you know.”

“Where are they, then?” Red-Beard demanded.

“I’ll go take a look,” Zelana said.

“You don’t have to do that, dear sister,” Dahlaine objected. “That’s my responsibility.”

“You’re too noisy, big brother,” Zelana replied. “I’ll do it, and I won’t shake down the walls of this gorge in the process. Just stay right here. I won’t be long.”

Narasan shuddered and looked away as Zelana rose up into the air without so much as making a sound. “I wish she wouldn’t do that,” he muttered.

“She’s just showing off,” Dahlaine declared. “She loves to startle people that way.”

“We still love her, though,” Veltan declared with a gentle smile. “As long as playing games makes her happy, we can live with it, can’t we?”

Dahlaine gave Longbow a curious sort of look. “I’m not trying to criticize you here, my friend,” he said, “but what made you decide to goad that bison herd into fighting the battle in north Matakan for you?”

Longbow shrugged. “They were there, and I’ve been hearing stories about stampedes for quite some time now. The Atazaks were hopeless incompetents, but I still didn’t want to take any chances with the lives of my friends. Several things came together all at the same time, and it seemed to me that stampeding the bison over the top of the Atazaks might solve several problems. It worked out even better than I’d anticipated. I’d say that no more than four or five of ‘the Guardians of Divinity’ are still alive—or were—after the bison ran over just about everything on that slope.”

“You plan to rouse another bison stampede to eliminate the survivors, then?”

“The bison have done enough already, wouldn’t you say? Ekial left a fair number of horse-soldiers up there to guide the ordinary Atazaks back to their own territory. I’m fairly sure that the Malavi have chased down those few Guardians of Divinity by now, so the Atazakan Nation has been purified. You might want to give some thought to finding a leader who has his head on straight to rule that part of your Domain.”

“I probably should have been paying closer attention,” Dahlaine ruefully admitted. “I’ve been just a bit preoccupied with these attacks by the creatures of the Wasteland here lately, though.”

“The invasion of the lands of the Matans was a part of their attack,” Longbow reminded him. “The servants of the Vlagh have been trying to divert us for quite some time now. They were behind Kajak’s attack on Sorgan’s fleet in the harbor of Kweta in the Land of Maag, as I recall, and they’d pushed the Reindeer Tribes right to the brink of a war with the Deer Hunters in Tonthakan. I’d say that the Vlagh has begun to realize that her servants are no match for us in an ordinary war, so she’s doing her best to make things not ordinary.”

Then Zelana suddenly appeared as if from nowhere. “I found them,” she reported. “They’re definitely up to something.”

“There’s nothing new about that,” Veltan said. “What are they doing this time?”

“They all pulled back out of the gorge, little brother,” she replied. “They’re gathered near the southern mouth of the gorge, and they seem to be waiting for something.”

“A new hatch of an entirely different breed of enemies, maybe?” Veltan suggested.

“I don’t think so,” Zelana replied. “I took a quick swing out over the Wasteland to see if there were more of them coming this way, but it looks completely deserted down there.”

Narasan glanced on down the gorge and suddenly drew in a sharp breath. “I think we’ve got a problem,” he told the others.

“Oh?” Gunda said. “The fort here can keep the enemy from getting anywhere close to us.”

“The enemy has a friend, I’m afraid,” Narasan said. “It’s called ‘smoke.’ Look on down the gorge.”

They all turned and stared at the dense black cloud of smoke that seemed almost to be boiling up the gorge.

“Cover the lower parts of your faces!” Omago shouted. “Tell your men to use wet cloth! If they breathe in too much of that smoke, they’ll choke to death!”

“What is that?” Gunda demanded. “I’ve never seen smoke that black before.”