Pug glanced at the falling light. ‘It’s evening there already. We should leave first thing tomorrow.’
‘Another night’s rest will help you,’ said Sho Pi.
‘Besides, Nakor,’ said Pug, ‘you and I need to discuss some things.’
Calis said, ‘Such as?’
Pug said, ‘Some things, I am sorry to say, must remain between Nakor and I.’
Calis shrugged. ‘That’s as it should be. But I will be glad to return to Krondor. There is still a great deal left to do.’
Pug said, ‘You must go to Sethanon.’
Calis’s gaze narrowed. ‘I have duties.’
‘Be that as it may, you must be in Sethanon.’
‘My father?’ asked Calis.
‘He may have something to do with this, but I think it is something only you are capable of seeing done.’
‘What is that?’ asked the Queen.
Pug sighed. ‘I don’t know.’
Nakor laughed, a loud, long guffaw. ‘That sounds like something I would say.’
Pug shrugged. ‘I can’t say how I know, Calis, but you must be in Sethanon at the end. And you can’t risk not getting there. Which means we cannot have you in the battle. You must go straight to Sethanon - now.’
Calis looked torn. Pug and his father were nearly legendary figures, men whose wisdom and power were undoubted, but he had seen to the forging of the Prince’s defenses, as much as William, James, or the others. ‘But there are so many things for me to do.’
‘There are many men to do those things,’ said Nakor, ‘but if Pug is right, there is only one man who must be at Sethanon when the battle ends.’
‘Why?’ asked Calis.
‘We will know when the time comes,’ said Nakor with his nearly ever-present grin. ‘All will be made known to us.’
Calis said, ‘What of the others - my father. Macros, and Miranda?’
Nakor shrugged. ‘They have their own concerns, I am sure.’
Macros said, ‘Whenever I think I’ve seen everything there is to see, something new and perplexing shows up.’
Miranda and Tomas were forced to agree as the demon shifted its weight uncomfortably upon the ground. They had been communicating with it constantly since it had spoken, and had revealed problems. The demon itself appeared to be nearly mindless, but some other intelligence was in control. The problem was that this intelligence was limited in how much of the demon’s nature it could stem. Twice Macros and Miranda had been forced to restrain the creature and listen to it howl in rage for days.
But at the end of a month of give-and-take, all parties had arrived at a clear understanding.
The demon was controlled by a being named Hanam, a Saaur Lorekeeper from the Saaur homeworld of Shila. Between the four of them - Macros, Hanam, Miranda, and Tomas - they had pieced together a picture of events.
A dark power, vaguely known to Macros and Miranda, but whose name was hidden from them, had influenced the priests of a city called Ahsart, manipulating them into opening an ancient barrier between the demon realm and this one. The demons had come into the world of Shila, destroying an ancient empire and everyone in it.
The Pantathians had shown up in providential fashion, offering the remaining Saaur refuge on Midkemia in exchange for a generation’s service, thirty Midkemian years.
For half that time the Saaur had been growing in power on the continent of Novindus, then aiding the Emerald Queen in conquering the entire continent in anticipation of this attack on the Kingdom.
Miranda sighed. ‘We have, it seems to me, two options.’
‘Which are?’ asked Tomas.
‘Reveal the betrayal of the Saaur by the Pantathians, allowing them an honorable avenue to withdraw from the war, or find this entrance from the demon realm and close it.’
Tomas said, ‘We must do both.’
Macros said, ‘I do not like this choice, but Tomas is right.’
‘Can we do one, then the other?’ asked Miranda.
The voice of the demon still sounded like grinding rock, but Hanam said, ‘The demons’ King, Maarg, rages and has destroyed many of his own in frustration. He does not know the Pantathians have ceased to exist as a force.’ Pointing with a clawed talon toward a distant tunnel, he said, ‘The rift between Shila and this world is but a half-day’s walk from here. But on the other side of that rift waits Tugor and his minions.’ The demon stretched his arms, now reaching nine feet from talon to talon, and said, ‘I am half his size, and I lack his demon’s cunning.’
Tomas said, ‘A demon lord I can best.’
‘But it’s the numbers,’ said Macros. ‘Save the Demon King himself, none of that realm is the match of any single one of us.’ He glanced at his daughter. ‘Including you, I think, if you keep your wits.’
‘Thank you for that,’ she said dryly.
‘But a dozen or more of them at once . . .’ Macros shook his head. ‘That’s a different matter.’