The Younger Gods

"Let's say that our scouts come back with stories about some terrifying varieties of bugs. Then, maybe a day or so later, the priests and other servants actually see those very same bugs."

"I can do that, yes," Veltan admitted. "I'll need to stay quite a ways away from Aracia when I do it, though. If I'm too close to her, she'll be able to feel what I'm doing."

"We'll probably be out along the west side of her temple. That's quite some distance from the main temple here. The higher-ranking priests will probably be hiding out in cellars and what-not, but I'm sure we'll be able to come up with some reason for a few of the lower-ranking priests to be out there with us. If you whip up some nasty images, they'll probably run back to Aracia yelping and squealing. Let's keep your sister so terrified that she can't think straight. We want her to order all of her priests to come home to the temple to join up with the ones already here. We don't want any of her priests out there catching whiffs of the invasion of Long-Pass. Let's make sure that Narasan can get his job done without any interference from your sister or her overweight priests."

"You're getting very good at this sort of thing, Sorgan."

"Practice, Veltan, practice. And if worse comes to worse, we can borrow a few of the children. I'm almost positive that Eleria could scare your older sister into convulsions, if that's what we really need. We're pulling off a hoax here, but let's make it seem so real that nobody who works for your sister will even dare to come out of the temple to have a look for themselves."

UP FROM THE BEACH

Chapter One

It was late afternoon on a cold, grey winter day when the Victory hauled into a narrow bay where a sluggish-looking river came down through a range of low, rounded mountains.

"This must be the place, Andar," Gunda said to his friend as the sailors lowered the sails of the Victory and dropped the anchor. "Lord Dahlaine's map only showed one river coming down out of the mountains along this stretch of the east coast."

"It looks to be quite a bit wider than the streams and rivers we encountered off to the west," Andar observed.

"And fairly quiet as well," Gunda added. "That doesn't particularly hurt my feelings, though. Waterfalls and rapids are pretty to look at, but trying to get around them isn't much fun at all."

"I knew it," Andar said.

"Knew what?"

"Longbow said he'd be waiting for us here, and there he is."

"I don't—" Gunda started, but then he too saw the leather-clad archer sitting on a log not far from the river mouth. "That's Longbow, all right," he said. "If he says he's going to do something or be someplace, you might as well believe him. I learned never to argue with him during that first war in Lady Zelana's Domain."

"If I was reading Lord Dahlaine's map right, he had hundreds of miles ahead of him when he led the Malavi and those natives down along that mountain range," Andar said, sounding more than a little baffled.

"The first rule when you're dealing with Longbow is always to believe him when he tells you something," Gunda said with a slight smile. "It may not be true when he says it, but it will turn out to be true in the long run. If Lady Zelana doesn't wiggle her fingers to make things happen, Longbow's other friend—the one who conjures up tidal waves on dry land or sets fire to a mountain range when she gets irritated—will. Don't ever cross Longbow if you can possibly avoid it. That's the best way I know of to stay alive."

Narasan and the overly clever Keselo came out of the cabin at the stern of the Victory, and they joined Gunda and Andar at the starboard rail. "I'd say that we made good time," Narasan observed.

"Not too bad," Gunda agreed, "but Longbow outdid us. He's camped on the beach, and he's probably been waiting for us for a month or so at least."

"I see that you're filling in for Padan in the funny remarks department," Narasan said in a sour tone. "If you are, you'd better practice just a bit. Padan would have added all sorts of irritating comments to that one."

"Give me a little time, Narasan," Gunda replied. "My sense of humor's sort of rusty—the weather, no doubt."

"Longbow should be able to tell us if the bug-people are coming up out of the Wasteland," Keselo said. "That's what we really need to know."

Gunda squinted at the narrow bay. "I was sort of hoping that we'd be able to get closer to the beach," he said. "If the men have to row ashore from this far out, it'll take us several days to get everybody on shore."

"We won't be going anywhere for several days anyway, Gunda," Narasan said. "Half of the army's still camped on that beach up in Dahlaine country. Sorgan's scheme should keep Aracia out of my hair, but when he borrowed half of the fleet, he slowed things down for us quite a bit. Let's go ashore and have a little chat with Longbow. We really need to know if the bugs are moving yet."

"How far would you say it is to the top of Long-Pass from here?" Narasan asked when several Trogites met with the archer.

"About a hundred and twenty miles, Narasan," Longbow replied. "Dahlaine's map was fairly accurate."

Narasan winced. "That's not exactly good news, Longbow," he said. "At ten miles a day, that's twelve days at least."

"Is ten miles a day some sort of religious obligation?" Longbow asked the commander.

"No, not really," Narasan replied. "It's based on reality. One man alone can cover much more ground, but when you're dealing with an army of a hundred thousand, ten miles a day is about the best you can hope for."

"But your fort-builders wouldn't really have to move that slowly, Narasan," Longbow declared. "Friend Gunda here is the expert, so he'll know how many of your men we'll need to get the job done. If I were to guide—or maybe lead—your fort-builders up the pass, I'm sure that I'd have them up there in four days, and they could have most of the work finished by the time you and the rest of your army reached the top."

"It's just not done like that, Longbow," Gunda protested. "An army's not an army if it gets all split up like that."

"Don't be in such a rush, Gunda," Andar suggested. "It's very likely that we're going to need those forts and we'll definitely need them before the bug-people come charging across the Wasteland. I suppose we could give some thought to blocking them off somewhere about halfway down the pass, but I'd say that blocking them right up at the top of the pass would work better."