‘Your old friend Alfred. He’s got a company to the north of this one, and then Harper, and Jerome, who’s anchoring the end of the line. Turner is to our south, Frazer after him, then it’s the Prince’s command at the city.’
Erik smiled. ‘With sergeants like that, how can we lose?’
Jadow grinned. ‘How, indeed?’
Erik looked down the western slope, below the ridge line, and said, ‘A lot of men are about to die over twenty yards of dirt.’
Jadow said, ‘That’s the truth. But if what Captain Calis told us, on that beach in Novindus, is true, it’s a pretty important twenty yards.’
Erik said, ‘No doubt about it.’ He turned and looked down the slope at the men climbing toward him. The archers started firing and Erik could feel the tension in his shoulders as he waited for the first man to close, so he could engage the enemy and get this matter over with.
Then, as if men sprang from the ground, a sea of attackers appeared before him. Erik began to fight.
Pug frowned. ‘Unlock the Iifestone? How do you propose to do that?’
‘What does it mean?’ asked Tomas, looking at his son. ‘Does that release the Valheru?’
Calis shook his head. He sighed, as if very tired. ‘I’m not sure I can answer either question. I don’t know how to unlock the forces inside this thing.’ He pointed at the pulsing green stone, with the golden sword protruding from it. ‘I just know that once I begin, I should be able to manipulate the energies within.’
‘How do you know this?’ asked Nakor.
Calis smiled at him and said, ‘As you are so fond of saying, “I just know.” But once I’ve begun, I may not be able to stop, so I want to be certain I’m doing the correct thing.’ He pointed at the stone. ‘This is something that never should have been allowed.’
Tomas rubbed his chin. ‘Ashen-Shugar said basically the same thing to Draken-Korin.’
‘This is what caused the Chaos Wars,’ said Nakor.
All eyes turned to him. Tomas asked, ‘How can you be certain?’
‘Think about it. You have a Valheru’s memory. Why was the Lifestone created?’
Tomas let his mind drift back, recalling memories he had first experienced fifty years before, but memories that originated with a being ages dead. Suddenly the memories washed over him.
A call came. Ashen-Shugar sat alone in his hall, deep below the mountains. His mount, the golden dragon Shuruga, lay curled in sleep, below the huge vertical shaft that gave him access to Midkemian skies.
It was a strange call, unlike any he had heard before. It was a summoning, but one without the bloodlust that drew the Dragon Host together to fly across the stars for pillage and plunder. In his hall, Ashen-Shugar had found himself changing, as another presence, a being named Tomas, had come to him, in thought, from a distant place. By his nature, he should have felt outrage, a murderous reaction to the presence in his mind, yet this being, Tomas, seemed to be a part of him, as natural as his left hand.
With a mental command he woke Shuruga, and leaped upon the back of the great beast. The dragon jumped upward and with mighty wings beat for the sky, heading out of the mountain hold that was the domain of the Ruler of the Eagles’ Reaches.
Eastward he flew above the range of mountains that would someday be known as the Grey Towers, and over another range that would be called the Calastius Mountains, to a vast plain, upon which the race met. He was the last to arrive.
He circled Shuruga and ordered the great dragon to descend. Each Valheru waited as the mightiest among them touched down. In the center of the circle stood a figure resplendent in black and orange armor, Draken-Korin, who called himself the Lord of Tigers. Two of his creatures, tigers bred by magic to walk upright and speak, stood on either hand, snarling, with their powerful arms crossed. They were objects of indifference to the Ruler of the Eagles’ Reaches. Despite their fierce appearance, these lesser creatures were of no danger to a Valheru.
By common opinion, Draken-Korin was the strangest of the race. He had ideas of new things. No one knew from where those ideas came, but he was obsessed by them.
Tomas blinked. ‘Draken-Korin! He was different!’
Nakor asked, ‘Have you never wondered why?’
Tomas said, ‘No. I mean, Ashen-Shugar never wondered why.’
Nakor said, ‘The Valheru appear to be a race with a surprising lack of curiosity. Anyway, what do you remember?’
‘I remember being summoned.’
‘For what?’ asked Pug.
Tomas said, ‘Draken-Korin summoned the race, and he proclaimed that the order of the universe was changing. The old gods, Rathar and Mythar, had fled . . .’ Tomas’s eyes widened. ‘He said, “or have been deposed”!’
‘Deposed?’ said Miranda.
‘By the Controller Gods!’ said Dominic.
‘Wait!’ said Tomas. ‘Let me remember!’ He closed his eyes.