Martuch and Hirea looked at one another, then Hirea said, ‘Never in the history of our people has there been anything like this…’ He shook his head. ‘We must do something.’
Pug sat back, tired from his exertions. ‘We must wait a little longer, I think.’
‘Why?’ asked Martuch. He stood up, obviously ready to climb the ladder and see for himself what was going on.
‘If you were conducting such a massive operation,’ said Pug, his tone revealing his impatience at having to explain, ‘and you knew that some of the Lessers you sought out were very adept at hiding, what would you do?’
Hirea looked at Martuch and even to Pug and Magnus his expression was easy to read. ‘You’d leave behind Deathknights to follow after at some long interval to catch those coming up for air, you fool.’
Martuch looked as if he might draw his sword and turn on his old companion, but after a moment of a silent inward struggle he let his hand slip from the hilt of his weapon and then he sat down in his chair, frustration on his face. ‘This is obscene,’ he said softly.
Hirea agreed. ‘This is why we do what we must.’
‘What do you suggest?’ asked Martuch of Pug.
‘We wait. We will soon hear the second wave of those driving the stragglers before them, I am certain.’
‘What then?’
‘We find Valko and the others, then see if there’s any remote possibility we can locate Nakor and Bek. But we will indeed have to move soon, for the Dark One has made his commitment; he’s using tens of thousands of lives to expand his invasion of Kelewan, and I am certain he will use every life on this world if he must to take it.’
‘Every life?’ asked Hirea, for even though he understood much of what Pug had told him of the Dread and the creature known as the Dark God of the Dasati, he still couldn’t quite grasp the enormity of the concept.
‘Why not?’ said Magnus. ‘He has eleven other worlds. There are many more millions of Dasati to kill on Kosridi if he runs out here. And when Kosridi is barren, he’ll start on another after that.’
‘How did we become like this?’ asked the old trainer.
‘Generations of lies and manipulation,’ said Magnus.
Pug nodded his agreement. ‘Let me tell you of what I know of the Chaos Wars.’ He began to tell the two old fighters about the visions he had on the Tower of Testing in Kelewan and other stories and tales, woven together in a long narrative about the fall of the Two Blind Gods of the Beginning and the rise of the Valheru on Midkemia, the banishment of the Dragon Lords, and the Battle of Sethanon after the Riftwar. He told the story without embellishment, and when he had finished, both of the old Deathknights sat silently.
Finally Martuch said, ‘Do you think that war extended here?’
Pug said, ‘I think that war existed in every aspect of reality. I think from the Chaos War down to the struggle we face today, the fight is all the same: the balance of the universe has been distorted and we are caught up in the conflict to restore it.
‘It never made any logical sense to me that this was only some internal struggle between those forces we call good and evil; for even evil exists within a paradigm that requires a balance with good, or if all is evil the term loses meaning.
‘There is nowhere in my plane of existence where evil predominates as it does in the Dasati Empire, yet here you are, and with other agents of the White, you seek to restore the balance. Because evil cannot exist without good to contrast with and to balance it.’
‘I don’t understand,’ admitted Hirea. ‘Yet I will accept your explanation.’
‘It’s not simple,’ said Magnus. ‘But somewhere before history, a breach was made between what is our collective, real universe, including all the planes of existence, and the Void. It is from the Void that the thing you call the Dark One came. He distorted the balance of this universe so much, disrupted the normal give and take between opposing forces so severely, that he was able to supplant the Dasati deity of evil and grew in power after seizing his place and driving out all the original Dasati gods.’
Knowing that Pug had mentioned the Talnoy on Midkemia, Magnus added, ‘We may never know who gave the Dasati gods safe haven on my world, but there they remain, and perhaps if they were to return… perhaps the balance in this realm would return that much faster.’ He let out a slow breath. ‘But for that to happen, the Dark One needs to be destroyed, I think.’
A sound from above caused everyone to fall silent. Feet were pounding on the ground above, followed by others in close pursuit. Pug said, ‘Soon. We can move soon.’
‘I hope Valko and his knights are safe,’ said Magnus.
‘They are safe or we are all lost,’ said Hirea.
‘Where are they?’ asked Pug.