Prophecy

Chapter 18

The League army marched east, kicking up dust as men and war machines pursued the Keldons fleeing toward their home territories. Barrin and General Mageta rode on runners side by side as they went from column to column. The armies and war machines of the western League cities had finally arrived. With news of Teferi's victory, Barrin knew the Keldon cause was finished. The only question now was how much damage they would do before the army was destroyed. The Keldons were massing in the interior, and if he hoped to defeat them in detail he must catch them soon. "Rayne," Barrin called as he saw his wife leaving the lines on her runner. "Where are you going?"

Rayne looked calm as Barrin and Mageta moved closer. The general sat stiffly on his runner, his wounds still bothering him despite repeated sessions with Shalanda.

"There are reports from the forward scouts of dead and dying wildlife around the water holes," Rayne replied. "Shalanda is investigating, and I'm hauling some more equipment out to her." She patted bulging saddlebags on the back of her machine.

"Damn," Mageta said. "We'll never catch the enemy if we have to divert to find good water."

Barrin shook his head in agreement. Though the war machines did not require water, the marching soldiers did. More importantly, so did the draft animals hauling the supply wagons. The attack on watering holes was an unexpected tactic from the Keldons. Barrin hadn't expected them to use the land against the League.

A set of scouts came in from patrol. Blood leaked down from the gaskets and spotted the mechanical legs. The blades that swung out from the sides cleaned and sharpened themselves whenever they retracted.

"Run into the Keldons?" Mageta demanded before they could make a report.

"No, sir," their leader replied. "Just groups of highly aggressive parea. We have orders to kill them before they come close to the column." He spoke matter-offactly about the "tigers of the plains."

"I know supplies are tight, but I believe that the army can afford you shooting them from a distance," Barrin said with gallows humor. The scouts laughed.

"Soon we will have proper targets," Mageta said. He massaged his arm and looked east.

Haddad sat at the side of the barge and watched the miles roll past. After all the dreams and plans for escape, he was finally going toward his homeland. Latulla's speech gave her the support to demand an immediate attack. Messengers had set a rendezvous point with the Keldon troops pulling back from the League advance. Latulla and Greel drafted several of the remaining land barges and loaded crates of cargo on each. The boxes were doubly sealed with both Latulla and Erissa's sigils. Haddad wondered what deviltry waited to be used against the League. He was supposedly part of a ballista crew, but in reality he was focused on when to abandon the barge.

A small scouting barge came alongside at high speed. The Keldon cavalry had been bled dry by counter raiders along the League border, and only the small barges were available to make up the lack.

"The League is advancing on the rendezvous point! At the current speed, they will engage our forward elements at least an hour before you and the main body arrive!" the captain of the barge shouted. Latulla glared as if he were personally responsible for the bad news.

"Signal all barges to advance at maximum speed," she commanded. The pilot on their barge relayed the order. The craft seemed to lower as the speed rose. Haddad could hear significantly more noise from the legs of craft, and the joints seemed to hum under the higher power load.

"Artificer, this power demand will exhaust the reservoirs in short order," the pilot said, and then he pointed at two barge slaves. "See them draining and refilling the reservoirs around the seals? Many of the craft are not carrying enough refined Heroes' Blood."

Haddad snorted. Heroes' Blood indeed. Whatever the source of tufa, he doubted it sprang from the veins of Keldons.

"Blood is blood, and with Greel's aid I can supplement the power for the craft." Latulla was matter-of-fact, but Haddad swore that her eyes rested on him. He began watching more carefully for a place to disembark.

The scouting barge thrust a batch of dispatches at the end of a long pole to Latulla's vessel, then it accelerated to the supposed military commander's craft. The fact that it stopped to inform Latulla first and obeyed the orders for high speed showed where the true power in the army lay.

Latulla was reviewing the dispatches and paused as she came across one particular report.

"The scouts have spotted numerous dead animals, particularly around waterholes." She thought for a moment and then chuckled. "They really are trying to use poison and disease."

Greel overheard her. "That would explain the deaths we have been enduring in the camp. If the League is using such methods, then it must be much weaker than you supposed." Greel sounded earnest even to Haddad's suspicious ears.

"If that is true, then their attack will be hollow." Latulla grabbed a slave from the crew and turned back toward Greel. "We will need to increase speed. I know you helped Erissa in her experiments. Do you know any way we can use this to increase speed?"

Haddad could see Greel's customary smile broaden. "I am sure that we'll think of something."

Within minutes the barges were going faster, but the League technician was appalled at the cost.

"More power," Latulla moaned, and her hands were palsied as she reached for another unwilling slave. The next victim moaned in fright, but made no other movement as Greel pushed him into Latulla's grasp. He hugged them both, and the air seemed colder as the slave sprawled down comatose, barely breathing. There were more slaves waiting their turn, and Haddad edged slightly closer to the side with each falling body.

Latulla had stopped briefly and taken on as many slaves as possible in a window of a few minutes. The other Keldon magic users now drew on her power to enhance land barge performance. Like the war manikin spell, it drained away the strength of the caster to power the machine-the difference being that a warrior in combat could power a group of manikins for tens of minutes, and already this spell was leaving a trail of bodies.

Greel assisted Latulla with the ritual, holding down the slaves as Latulla sucked the life out of them. Haddad saw that each death seemed to increase Greel's energy, and the technician knew the monster was feasting on lives once more.

Latulla shook, and another flare of energy was sent out to the fleet. The artificer became aware once more and laughed.

"So much easier than calling the power on your own," she said. "You must show me how to initiate the sacrifice without you, Greel. There is a corner of the ceremony that I can't quite see."

Greel was frowning with disappointment. He had another slave held in his arms in preparation for continuing the ceremony. He quickly schooled his face and put the slave back in the line of waiting victims. He did it with the care of a glutton saving a favorite snack for later.

Haddad was thumped on the head and spun wildly. Another scouting barge had drawn alongside, and the poled sack of dispatches had hit him. He grabbed the sack and felt great satisfaction as the warrior at the other end of the pole almost fell.

Latulla grabbed the messages with only a blow to acknowledge Haddad's aid. She searched through it hurriedly, reading each quickly before throwing it aside. Slaves gathered them up with startled lunges as some started to float overboard.

"Blimps have been sighted far ahead," she said worriedly. Despite Latulla's contempt for the League, the attacks on the colony had given her a healthy respect for League airships. "Command all magic users to start a deceptive haze." Servants quickly broke out chips for the brazier, racing each other to show they were more than fuel. Latulla looked at Greel. "Perhaps someday we can learn to use that spell for other things. For now, smoke is needed to hide us until we can engage the enemy. They won't drop bombs if they can't see us." Greel laughed as Latulla talked of deception. Smoke began to billow, and Haddad could see less and less as the haze thickened.

"Where are they?" Barrin hissed in frustration. The scouts could not tell him the position of the second column. They must be only minutes away, but the reinforcements had temporarily disappeared. He and Mageta exchanged glances.

"It's time," they both said.

Mageta called for battle preparations, and the men and machines began to line up. There was a rolling series of crashes as supplies were cut free from the crabs' backs, and boxes of reloads for weapons were smashed open. Ants and mantises formed into fighting blocks, and the fast runners and scout ants circled nervously in their loose formations.

"Communicator," Barrin called, as he dismounted and walked quickly to the mage set up in a wagon. "Get me Alexi immediately." The officer didn't salute but fell immediately to work.

Soon Alexi's voice sounded. "Is there finally a target to hit?"

Barrin could hear the frustration Alexi battled all day as she waited for the enemy.

"Yes there is," he responded sharply. "The group that we've been chasing. I want you to unload half of your bombs on their column immediately. We've lost the other group, and we can't afford to have them link up. Smash them, and keep your eyes open for the incoming column."

"You've finally made me a happy woman, Barrin." Alexi left to commence the attack, and Barrin could see the blimps turning as they prepared to drop the new weapons.

Rayne rode up to Barrin. Her launcher was loaded and ready, and her flushed face momentarily entranced Barrin.

"What news of the enemy?" she demanded, eager to start the fight and perhaps finish the war. Barrin merely held his finger to his lips and then pointed to the blimps in advance of the League army.

There were nearly sixty blimps at high altitude. They had been silently following for so long that most of the army had forgotten they were there. Kashan and Mushan blimps floated lightly in the air accompanied by a huge dark airship. The Storm Cloud was the first Negria class to fly, and it was a bull in a field of sheep. Bombs poured from the blimps and raced for the horizon. The Keldon forces the League chased were not visible to Barrin, but he could see fireballs and streamers being thrown into the air in a vain attempt at vengeance or interception.

The bombs dropped out of sight. Even over the noise of the preparing troops, Barrin could hear the long ripping roar of explosions as each bomb laid a clutch of bomblets before settling down to roost at the collection point. He could not see them hit, but he did see the smoke from burning barges.

"Alexi, how much damage?" he demanded. The reply was hard to make out over the cheers on the other end.

"Nearly a clean sweep," Alexi replied. "Probably ninety percent of the big barges were hit and perhaps fifty percent of the small ones. They're not destroyed, but that group will be a while conducting repairs. If you want to be sure let me drop the other bays."

"No," Barrin scolded. "Find the other column. They must be close by." Time was running out, and Barrin couldn't say all that needed to be said to his wife.

"Here," he said, and took a crystal from his wallet. "I'll pulse it twice when I am going to have Alexi dump her load on the enemy. It will pulse just once to signal a flank attack." Rayne caught it as he tossed it to her. "I love you," he cried as she went back to the scouts and ant swarms. She may have said something in reply, but Barrin couldn't hear in the confusion.

Barrin's ears picked up the quickening beat of an ornithopter's wings and turned to see his private craft coming in for a landing. He rushed toward the craft, furious that Yarbo should be on the ground while an entire enemy column was missing. Shalanda dismounted and met him before he could begin yelling.

"Barrin, it's not poison, it's plague!" Shalanda cried as he nearly ran into her.

"What?" He had no idea what she was talking about. Didn't she realize a battle was about to start?

"The dead animals around the water holes were killed by disease, not poison," Shalanda explained. "When I inspected the carcasses and the water I realized that it was a disease." She took a deep breath. "I think it might be a more advanced form of the flu we spotted during the attack on Arsenal City. The League is starting to report hundreds of cases over the naval channels. It's jumping from animals to men."

"I can't believe the Keldons would do this. Don't they realize they are vulnerable too?" Barrin was enraged at the idea of disease being spread to kill whoever might be exposed.

"I don't think the Keldons are responsible," Shalanda said. "It looks far too advanced to be something of their making. The spores appear to be part organic material and part machine!"

Barrin had no time to digest this new information because the sky seemed to clear, and the missing enemy column appeared less than a mile away.

"Deploy the warriors and the war manikins." Urit issued the order but at Latulla's direction.

The League forces were fairly close, and Haddad wondered if he would be killed by friendly fire. Latulla had screamed murderously and pounded a slave to death at the news of the other Keldons' destruction. Her curses against the League were interspersed with promises of terrible punishment for the commanders stupid enough to be killed by the blimp attacks. A small barge brought them the news along with one of the weapons responsible. Latulla wasted no time in cracking it open, and Haddad closed his eyes in prayer, waiting for the blast the madwoman was sure to unleash. Instead the artificer dissected an almost empty shell. Haddad thought he grasped how it worked, but it was the powerstone and the command set that fascinated Latulla. She calmed almost instantly and called Greel and Iola to her for a quick conference. Whatever the result, Latulla wasted no time in calling for an attack. Once the order was relayed, she called the captain of the barge to her side.

"We need to be closer to the front of the battle to activate the weapon. Prepare to move us up with the assault forces," she directed.

"We are going nowhere until I can beg some Heroes' Blood from another barge. We have completely exhausted our supply." The captain pointed to the slaves working on the seals and reservoirs. Haddad knew what Latulla's preferred solution would be and said his good-byes to slavery.

Slipping over the side was easy. Latulla's barge had stopped sooner than the other barges, and all watchful eyes were toward the enemy. Even if he were spotted, a warrior would not throw away the battle to chase an escaped slave. He would get away and circle back to the League lines. In his excitement, he forgot that he was not escaping from a Keldon warrior but from Latulla. The pain was an ax in his side as her rage tore into him through the bracelet.

He was on the ground and a very small child could have captured him in those first moments of pain. He could smell the crushed grass he writhed in. The pain seemed to peak and then subside slightly. He moved his legs, turning his body until he could see the Keldon position. There was a growing crowd of warriors and war manikins.

Latulla's barge was almost leisurely moving toward the front of the lines. A single figure left it and began walking back toward Haddad. Had Latulla sent a slave back to retrieve her toy? It was Greel, and Haddad recognized the smile before any other features were visible.

"Thought you would take a walk, did you?" The voice was almost bantering as a boot nudged Haddad's side. "You should have known that Latulla never lets anything go once she owns it." Greel knelt and lightly slapped Haddad's arm. The prone man choked as a bolt of pain stopped him from breathing.

"I think that you know who I am," Greel said. "I think you've seen me when I am more myself." Another playful slap rocked Haddad's head.

"I must be going, but as soon as I come back, we can tell each other all about ourselves. You are Latulla's gift to me, and I always play with my presents." Greel raised his hand to slap the bracelet, and Haddad couldn't help cringing. "I'll give you a pat when I get back."

The familiar walked back, and as soon as Haddad could, he rose to his hands and knees and crawled back to the Keldon lines and the oncoming Kipamu League forces. Maybe a Keldon warrior would kill him or a League bolt would skewer him, but he was not going to remain alone in the grass waiting for that monster to return.

General Mageta ordered the attack to commence. There was no time to dig in, and though the Keldons were numerous, the League army was confident they could be beaten. The crabs went forth with supporting squads of infantry. A few launchers discharged, and rockets flew into the oncoming lines of men and hollow warriors. The Keldons once more had smoking embers and sticks of incense burning in their armor. The ants advanced at a trot, held back to keep the line steady. The mantises in their bright colors anchored the right side of the League line. It was growing harder to see the action as the lines closed, but Barrin could just make out Mageta at the front. The old mage waved for Yarbo to take them up as he jumped into the ornithopter.

The Keldons were closer, and a roar of thousands shook the battlefield as they charged. The League responded with its own roar. The crabs fired not rockets but oversized net rounds. The opposing Keldons and their machines were transformed into cursing, roiling barricades that continued to trap warriors. The enemy troops trampled their more unfortunate fellows as they crested the barrier, but each crab had three weapons modules and another wave of Keldons fell entangled. The infantry with the crabs settled into a sustained barrage of light rockets at the webbed forces.

The ants were not as impressive, but almost as many Keldons died when they first met. The ants discharged their single rockets, and the sheer number of launchers overwhelmed the front ranks of the Keldons. The supporting infantry was armed with only swords and bolt launchers. The ants, when they did not dismember the enemy, held them long enough to be killed by the men supporting the machines.

The mantises stayed well back to deal with any breakthroughs or to lead a new attack. The main weapons pod was loaded with a heavy rocket to bust barges, but their high heads held a single light launcher, and the rockets shot out over the League forces to kill targets of opportunity.

The crabs advanced now, and their heavy arms crushed the helpless foe. The Keldons were held in place, and Alexi called to Barrin.

"I'm in position, and you're well out of the weapons' path," she said.

"Fire on the barges!" Barrin ordered, and he sent two pulses to Rayne's crystal. Soon he would relay a single pulse, sending forces in to attack the Keldons from the rear. Victory tasted so sweet.

Rayne was separated from the rest of scouts. Shalanda and Jolreal had prepared a device for detecting concentrations of the blight and disease. Rayne had insisted that she be able to identify concentrations when separated from the other two. Back along the Keldons' path she had identified a trace. Like a lodestone to iron, she could feel the needle pulling her forward away from the other scouts. The trail of dead bodies behind the Keldon army showed traces, but the strongest concentration beckoned her farther and farther on. She slowed as she neared the parked barges. She wouldn't follow the trace any farther. In fact, she began a slow retreat, for the battle was too close. She needed to return to the scouts off to her right. The barge guards looked toward her, and she turned her machine. A warrior surprised her from behind, and he swung his sword, missing her by inches as she jumped her machine to the side.

"A wonderful dodge, lady!" the warrior yelled, and rushed forward, a wide grin lighting up his face. Rayne triggered her wings and opened his abdomen as she maneuvered her runner. Something like intestines poured from the wound, but the warrior did not buckle, he laughed. Huge guffaws burst from his gaping mouth as Rayne stared. The warrior hugged his sides but from the force of his laughter, not the pain of his wound. She still gripped the needle on the string. It was pointed toward the warrior, pulling at her hand.

"You're thick with the disease," she said under her breath as she unleashed her bolts at the enemy.

The warrior dodged too fast, and her shots buried themselves in the ground. He stumbled as he came at her, and she triggered her wings once more before retreating a few yards back. She ducked down as a thrown knife came at her head. It clipped her temple as she dodged, and she was stunned for the moment. Blood poured down the side of her face and then dripped down her chin, spattering on the runner controls as she tried to stay conscious.

"My name is Greel, pet," the monster said. Another knife was in his hands, but instead of throwing it, he used it to cut the tubes of flesh still hanging from his body. "First you cut me with blades then you cut me with words. You really can't expect me to ignore that bad behavior."

He stalked toward her, and she shook her head, hoping the pain would burn through the fog in her brain. She needed to live through this. Her hand grasped the stock of her launcher as she backed and turned her machine. If she ran, the bestial creature in front of her would put a knife in her back. End this now and get back to your friends, she thought. Then she felt the crystal in her pocket vibrate twice. Barrin was ordering Alexi to attack. The blimps would drop their bombs any second and she might still be in the path of destruction. More barge crew guards were coming, and time was running out. Then Barrin's crystal pulsed once more.

"It appears playtime is almost over, darling," Greel said. "If I don't kill you now you might say something embarrassing about me. My feelings are far too tender for that." He looked quickly to see how close the Keldons were, and in that instant Rayne charged.

Every bolt she had left snapped through the air as the runner closed. Two caught Greel's legs, and he fell as his limbs gave way. Rayne drew her launcher, determined to put a rocket into the monster. Then there was a great explosion, and her runner seemed to fall away underneath her. Rayne flew from the saddle as her mount lost all control. At high speed Rayne approached the ground, turning in midair. She came down on her side. Her arm and ribs shattered as they contacted the soil, and her body flipped over and hit once more. Her pelvis and legs broke as she slid to a stop. The pain hit her like a sledgehammer, and she gasped. She was facing Greel, and the monster was still smiling, his flesh remolding itself on his legs.

"I do believe I am going to win the race to get up first," Greel said in a jolly tone. "I think broken toys are the most fun, but don't worry. With an audience I am always quick."

Rayne couldn't move. She felt cold and knew shock was killing her. Her opponent vanished from her thoughts as she tried to move. Nothing seemed to work, and the enemy was closing too fast. She was going to die. She thought of her daughter and the decades she had been with Barrin. So many years of happiness and love.

"It was a good life," she whispered, and closed her eyes.

The discharge of the Keldon weapon was sudden and without warning. Barrin watched for signs of the fire swallows, but he never detected Latulla's weapon. She had developed it on Keld after gaining access to captured League machines.

A wave of disruption spread in all directions from the Keldon barges. It battered artifacts and power drained from crystals in a sudden surge. Barrin was deaf and blind as energy flared all around him and drowned his senses.

Yarbo cursed as the ornithopter lost power but managed to coax the machine into a glide. On the ground, the power discharge was far more deadly. The League machines stopped. The crabs stopped swinging their arms, the ants fell in heaps, and the mantises teetered in place. Alexi had begun her attack run with bloodthirsty anticipation, but her bombs fell straight to the ground instead of gliding toward the land barges. They impacted with dull thuds, breaking into pieces, unnoticed by anyone except the incredulous crews that had hoped to win a battle.

As war machines lost power on the battlefield, the Keldons fell on the League forces, but these were not the same soldiers who had routed before at turns of fortune.

"Fire and close!" screamed Mageta as warriors tried to cut him down. The soldiers emptied launchers, and the front ranks swarmed over their opponents with short swords and knives. The war manikins were slow as the magical attack affected them. Soldiers trampled them to reach the warriors powering the Keldon artifacts. A bloody line of battle swayed back and forth as Mageta continued to cut down the enemy, favoring his injured arm but still gutting the warriors who closed with him.

Yarbo regained power in a sudden rush. The more advanced Tolarian technology recovered faster, and they were farther from the generator. He climbed as other machines on the plain below twitched. Barrin remembered that Rayne was to attack just before power was lost, and he pushed Yarbo aside from the controls. He sent the machine into a steep dive over the battlefield.

He spotted her runner as he flared over the mass of men and machines. The land barge crews had charged toward the main battle, but several dozen were still behind the main battle. Barrin saw Rayne's machine sprawled from a fall.

Barrin flew the ornithopter into the ground. Yarbo was knocked unconscious, but Barrin ignored him as he kicked his way free of the cabin. The Keldons ran at him yelling. Barrin raised his hands but not in surrender. Like a scythe, lightning poured from the wizard's hands, spearing into the helmets of the enemy. The continuous flare of power waved from side to side. Heads exploded, sundering flash-heated helmets. Warriors ducked but still charged forward. Barrin had aimed high to avoid hitting his wife, but now slow arcs of flame fluttered through the air and settled on the charging warriors. They turned to fiery pillars as Barrin hurried toward his wife's machine, still hoping to be in time. The warriors between him and the runner were piles of ash. He reached the fallen machine and saw Rayne's body. It was deformed, nearly crushed. Barrin slowed to a crawl. His eyes took in her broken legs and the pool of blood from her torso-her headless torso. He dropped to his knees and screamed. They had taken his beloved's head. They had destroyed her body.

"They're dead," he hissed through gritted teeth. "They'll all burn."

"There isn't enough rage and hate in the world to burn me," someone chortled.

Behind Barrin, Greel was getting to his feet. Barrin's fires had burned into its body, but the flesh was healing as Barrin looked on.

"I killed her, and now I get to kill you."

"There's always enough hate," Barrin rasped, stretching his senses deep into the bowels of the creature. It was disease and death made manifest. Like a pool of quicksand, it tried to suck his spirit into oblivion. Greel picked up a sword and closed with the kneeling wizard. The energy that flew from Barrin's fingers was not a mighty bolt of lightning but a cascade of sparks. Greel laughed as it soaked into him, but this energy attacked and disrupted the very cells and fluids of the monster's body. The blood and flesh separated into wildly different parts. The monster gasped and stumbled closer, raising the sword to kill but unable to travel forward on disassembled legs. Bones and a spray of liquid landed in front of Barrin, searing into the old wizard's legs. He ignored the pain.

The guards from the barges were closing on him, believing him spent. Once more he sent forth a blade of lightning, but now it moved at knee level and severed legs. The screams of agony were a salve to Barrin's pain. He rose to his feet and looked over the field of cripples. It wasn't enough. He looked toward the sky, and his mind raced higher and higher. Then high over the ground he found what he was looking for-a river of air that circled Dominaria. Like a man filling a bucket, he dipped into the jet stream and brought it toward the earth. His mind fell with the wind, pushing it faster and faster. The blast of air scooped the wounded men into the sky, their screams drowned out by the wind. They dribbled out of the sky, icy corpses as Barrin returned the power to the heavens.

It still wasn't enough. The Keldons near the barges were frozen numb as they stared at Barrin. Perhaps these would ease his rage. The wizard began advancing, and the warriors ran toward the battle. Better to fight men and metal machines than Barrin.

"Craven scum!" Barrin yelled. "Come and die!" He sent a wave of nightmarish illusion to turn them back, driving the warriors where he could see their faces as he killed them. Monsters appeared in the Keldon lines and fell on the enemy. Mageta looked at a huge dragon dripping slime. It loomed over the Keldons and struck at them, spreading fear. Warriors killed each other as they fought the Tolarian wizard's deceit, but few ran back toward the barges, preferring monsters to wizard.

Barrin was aware of the battlefield now. Mageta was closing with the last of the reserves, and the machines had reactivated. Barrin's attack spread panic among the Keldons, and more warriors were cut down trying to flee.

The charging of the fire swallows in the barges was a shout across his mind. The Keldon commanders were going to unleash a wave of destruction that might finish the League even if it savaged their own army. He lacked the power to stop the attack, but they had killed his wife. He could not rest as long as a single one of them lived.

Barrin stumbled toward the barges, his mind and powers preceding his body. Only a few of the barges were ready to launch, and Barrin could feel the instructions trickling down to the reanimated birds. It was his voice-his will- that filled the tiny weapons. His mind followed the links already established between the barges.

"Fly here, roost here." It was a cajoling cry that silenced the cold instructions delivered by a Keldon artificer. Whether it was the intensity of Barrin's will or the hatred he channeled he did not know, but the birds responded, and on release they rose into the air and fell upon the Keldons and their barges. Wooden shells burned, and Barrin enjoyed it. The smell of burning flesh was a cloud over the battlefield, assaulting his brain. This scent had always sickened him, but now he sought it, craved it. He walked among the barges, weak and wavering.

The enraged wizard stooped and plucked a sword from a dead warrior's hand. A few still lived and fled from the battle. He fell upon them, striking weakly at warriors but ignoring the slaves. An easy target, the Keldons fled from him in mindless fear. At last he reached a collapsed barge. The legs were blown free, and it had fallen on its side. It had crushed the Keldon commanders and been abandoned by everyone. A thick layer of soot was covering everything, and Barrin wiped his eyes. Someone was trapped by the barge. He moved forward and saw that it was a Keldon woman, her face rigid with pain and a cane clutched in her hand.

"Dig me free!" ordered Latulla, blinking rapidly to clear her tearing eyes. "Hurry, slave, or I'll have you beaten." The symmetry of it was so perfect, and Barrin came forward without hesitation.

It was almost an hour before General Mageta and a platoon of marines finally reached him. The Keldons were routed and still running from pursuing groups of cavalry and steel ants. Mageta was wounded again, three fingers showing on a bandaged hand and his chest bare and wrapped in bloody cotton. Barrin leaned against a smoking barge shell, a headless Keldon at his feet. Mageta rushed to express his grief, for he knew how Rayne had died.

"Barrin," Mageta said. "We've won the battle and shattered Keldon power on Jamuraa. The enemy is running, and Teferi's forces march to cut off their escape." Barrin said not a word at the news but continued to stare at Latulla's broken body.

"What should we do now?" Mageta said, trying to jar Barrin out of his silence. "There are still warriors on the plains and small detachments across Jamuraa. What are your orders?"

Barrin leaned against the side of a burning barge with his eyes closed. Decades of loving memories tried to fill the gap Rayne left when she died.

His voice was as cold as ice. "No quarter."

Haddad lay at the rear of the battlefield. Despite his fears, he was never noticed during the fighting, his pain and suffering lost against the backdrop of others dying. He witnessed parts of the battle, but every explosion and scream was muffled by his own agony. How long he lay there, he couldn't say. Finally a voice penetrated his mind.

"Where are you wounded?"

It was a handsome woman speaking with kindness and concern. He was so close to home that the pain seemed almost gone.

"I am Haddad. A soldier of the League." He had to pause and muster strength before he could continue. "I was captured months ago and made a slave. I have important information."

Latulla's bracelet sent even more pain into Haddad's body as he tried to betray her. He hammered his head into the ground as his bones seemed to twist and grate.

"What's wrong?" Shalanda had come searching for wounded and maybe information. This former slave appeared to be both, but he might die before he could tell her anything.

"It's the bracelet. It's killing me. Please destroy it. Please!" The need was overwhelming in Haddad's voice, and at last she agreed.

Shalanda breathed and focused on Haddad's pain. The bright core of it nearly blinded her. She lay her hands on the bracelet and could feel the tension barely restrained. Just a gentle nudge should dislodge it.

The bracelet unwound itself in a spray of blood and twisting wire. The device had sent wires up and down Haddad's side, and they were expelled violently in response to Shalanda's ministrations. The shock reverberated in her mind, and she could feel herself falling toward the ground. If she hit, her mind and spirit would break, and she prayed to fall forever.

Haddad could only see the sky and the end of pain. At last, a free man. He closed his eyes and the world went away.