Coda, Chapter 5: Meetings

They met on the road below the Skyport, the broad-shouldered man with the scarred face and the slender woman with the aging face and pinched, bitter expression. They knew one another at once. He bowed. She raised her chin a little, and sniffed. "Took you long enough."

"I could say as much for you. With a population spread over four continents, or rather archipelagoes, the time could not be short. Still, matters progress. We have an allegiance, which will provide us with a power structure at the proper time. I am not the leader. Yet."

"Just like the last time, ey? Very well. There will be a place for me in your power structure, I promise you that."

"Of course, venerable lady. But this time around, it will be you who swear to me." He smiled, and bowed again. "And how shall I call you?"

"I am called Aurian."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"It's as we feared," Isin Dule said. His hearers now included Pfeil and the Raven as well as his peers and Tapuaua. "The taint of Chaos is strong in the S.H.R.E.T.H. Ultra headquarters. Even I dared not approach too closely, no further than that last turn of the corner from where Maronak's scouts are accustomed to attack. But, like them, I was able to overhear Number Two talking to his minions. It was plain that he had been in office for only a few days, hastily promoted out of the ranks."

"What happened to the old Number Two?"

"No one ventured to ask ... nor did I. But someone mentioned Number One, and at that, Number Two turned away and looked as if he were ill --- or terrified. If Number One is what I think it is, no wonder."

"Do you have any other news?"

"Not at present."

"Thromer?"

"Durgan sends you his thanks for the subjects you sent him, and will report to you either directly or through me, when he has anything to report."

"Through you, if you don't mind," Nalicana said. "I have a good deal on my plate already." She counted them off on her long fingers. "The Brotherhood of Shapers have released Augmentations into the general crafting population, and many people are at work refurbishing buildings in the cities and towns, and when those are ready for habitation new buildings will be started. The people to occupy them will start coming out of the Shelters within five or six days. The construction teams will then move out into the Outposts --- those that aren't currently occupied by hostile Nemesis races with portal beacons --- and begin making those habitable."

"Shouldn't they begin by fortifying the towns?" Thromer asked. "Cavendo first of all, since the portal from Knorr is there? Then Shoushi and Rithwic --- unless you could put defenses around the portals that lead there ---"

"In time, yes," Nalicana said. "Since the war is not upon us yet, we have a little time before we need those defenses. First of all we need people. But you are right, the towns and outposts will need defenses, and one project is scheduled to begin almost at once, whenever I have the time. We are going to move the Lifestones into the towns and outposts. Consider. So far as we know, the Falatacot know nothing of Lifestones; Isin Dule has seen not a single one in their camps. When we kill one of their scouts in the outlands, he is dead forever. But as soon as they pass the Shieldwall, as soon as they reach Fort Strathelar --- whose walls are low, and whose entrance has no gate --- they will find out. We must make sure that the Lifestones are guarded from their use. One will be moved inside each town or Outpost --- and I have to be present to move it. The others might be deactivated or destroyed; if we cannot do that, we'll build cairns over them and prevent them from being used."

"Ah," said Dule. "I am ashamed; I had not considered that. Then I have a gift for you: not on my person; I must find an opportunity to give it to you. It is called the Lifestone Key."

There was silence for a moment. "One of the five Lost Artifacts," Pfeil said, and Tapuaua nodded. "I thought you didn't know what they were for."

"I didn't, "Dule said. "Since your people recovered them for me, I have been studying them, and I have discovered at least some of the functions of the Lifestone Key. Let me say this also: I do not believe that the Kemeroi called thing-Wharu knew what they were for either, or it would never have let me recover them."

"Let us examine the Lifestones together tomorrow, then," Nalicana said. "This afternoon we have the first muster of the army of Dereth, under our new war-leader, the Raven. Raven, perhaps you'd care to tell us what you expect this afternoon's exercises to do?"

"My Lady, I expect it to be a zoo," the Raven said frankly. "Our fighters aren't used to fighting in coherent groups, not even when the group is no larger than nine. It took me months, and a lot of shouting, to train three units of my own allegiance to move when told, stop when told, attack when told, and not go running off in all directions at once. What I hope to achieve this afternoon is for everyone to realize how ineffective they are when they don't stay in their units, don't move as told; and in following days and weeks, Light willing, they'll learn to."

"I have fought in large armies," Isin Dule said, "and against large armies. What you say is true. May the Falatacot remain long below the Shieldwall; you have a hard task and a long ahead of you."

"I thought so," the Raven said. "Will you --- my lords and my Lady --- will you three be present this afternoon?"

"I shall," Nalicana said.

"I'll be there leading my own unit," Thromer said. "All Lugians, most of them my cousins."

"Very well," the Raven said. "Later on, Imperator, I may have to ask you to give your unit to a lieutenant and stay in the command center. But no one will be up against anything he can't handle today."

"I shall be there, cloaked," Isin Dule said. "You received my message about Elemental Light?"

"Yes, my lord," the Raven said. "Anyone who pops a Light on the training ground will get his ears chewed off by the nearest sergeant, if I have to sew on the stripes myself."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The two figures materialized in front of the Binding Stone in the unobtrusive way one does. Kellin led his companion forward to where Palerath sat in the great chair, looking over a membership roster. "My Lord? May I present my new vassal, the Hieromancer Aurian."

"Welcome, Aurian," Palerath said. He rose and bowed, and sitting again wrote her name onto his list, under the A-rune. Then he looked up again, looked at her more closely, and for a moment Valind thought he had recognized her. But Palerath smiled broadly, and called out, "Aracoeli! Come and see! We have found you a twin."

Aracoeli stepped out of a nearby door and froze in mid-step. She could see what Palerath meant: aside from Valind's evident age, the two women looked like the shadow of one another, for their robes and helms were built along exactly the same lines; Aracoeli was all in black and Valind all in gold. "This is Aurian, Cashtal's new vassal."

"Honored," Aracoeli said, bowing low. "Excuse me, my lords, my lady; I am tasked with preparing the noon meal, and we are to attend the first muster this afternoon." She vanished through the doorway again, and returned to the kitchens. Her hands were trembling. She picked up the knife with which she had been slicing bread, put it down again, and took up a large spoon to stir a cauldron of soup. I might have expected that she, too, would come here.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"LISTEN UP!" The Raven's voice rang out over the plain, echoing from the walls of Old Cragstone, where restoration work had ceased for the afternoon, since many of the builders were also fighters. "THE FIRST OBJECT OF TODAY'S EXERCISE IS FOR EVERYONE TO LEARN TO STICK WITH HIS OR HER UNIT. HEALERS ARE BEING BRIEFED IN THE GREEN TENT UP ON THE PLATEAU. IF YOU ARE NOT A HEALER, YOU SHOULD BE IN YOUR UNIT. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE YOUR UNIT IS, LOOK FOR YOUR LEADER'S PENNON, WHICH HE SHOULD BE HOLDING UP OVER HIS HEAD. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHO YOUR UNIT IS, REPORT TO THE WHITE TENT UP ON THE PLATEAU."

"Nice loud voice she has," Jorgen commented to Rebvaz as they waited with their unit. "Hope it doesn't wear out before the day's over."

"No bets," Rebvaz said, looking around at the scattered crowds that milled across the plains. "This really is a zoo."

In the green Healers' tent, Tapuaua and her colleagues had just finished being briefed on their special duties --- which, since it was expected that no one at all would be killed or injured this afternoon, consisted mainly of helping to ride herd on their fellows --- and turned to leave the tent. Aracoeli edged through the crowd to Tapuaua and grasped her arm. "I have to show you something," she whispered.

At the base of the plateau, near the long-shattered Lifestone, eight brightly-armored Empyreans stood together. "That is Palerath, the monarch of the True Inheritors," Aracoeli said, "there in green, holding the pennon with the sun-in-splendor. Next to him, in blue, that's Kellin."

"I see them."

"Now look at the woman standing beside them, all in gold. Do you see her? That is the Nali Valind. She's Kellin's vassal, for what that's worth. She's calling herself Aurian, 'Gift of the Light.' The audacity of it!"

"Does Palerath know who she is?"

"Palerath doesn't know, I'm sure of it. Nor that Cashtal is Kellin. Palerath is a good man, and I long to set him right about those two. But I will obey Nalicana's order for as long as necessary. Tell her, when you get a chance, Tapu. Tell her that Valind and Kellin have found one another. I must get down to my unit; go north along the plateau till you reach yours. Don't let them see you with me."

"HEALERS, YOU SHOULD BE RETURNING TO YOUR UNITS. UNIT MEMBERS, GATHER AROUND YOUR LEADERS. NO ONE SHOULD BE WANDERING AROUND LOOSE EXCEPT THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN NAMED SERGEANTS, BY ME, TO MAKE SURE THE REST OF YOU DON'T WANDER AROUND LOOSE. IF A VERMIN OR A WASP ATTACKS YOU, YOU CAN KILL IT. YOU DON'T GO RUNNING OFF AFTER IT."

Healers made their way to their units; unit leaders waved their pennons overhead. Jepetto, a massive Lugian with sergeant's stripes painted onto his armor and a plain green pennon tucked under his arm, looked a unit over. "Three, six, nine," he said. "Good. Unit leaders, once your unit is in one piece, lower your pennon. If anyone wanders off, call him back, raise your pennon again till he's back, and then beat him about the head and shoulders with it." He moved on to the next unit. "Three, six, nine," he counted again. "How you doing, Pfy? Think you can keep this lot in order?"

"Gads, I'd better," Pfeil said, grinning. She had already lowered the pennon, green with a white square on it that stood for Shoushi. "Is the Raven really gonna make us march in formation?"

"Well, you can see the need for it," Jepetto said. "We don't have to look all parade-spiffy-neat, and we certainly don't have to march in step. But we do have to be able to go cross-country and not get lost or mixed up. We not only have to keep our units together, we have to keep them more-or-less in the same spatial relation to each other. It doesn't matter so much for us --- the Order of Chaos takes all races, all Kingdoms, or none of the above --- but there are all-Order units, all-Shadow units, all-Lugian or -Empyrean units, and some of them might be tempted to forget who it is we're fighting, which is not each other."

"Gotcha," Pfeil said. "You heard that, you guys? The order of march is me in front, the rest of you in two columns of four behind. Where in the column you are doesn't strictly matter, except it had better not be far from where you'll be in the order of battle. That's tanks in front, damage-dealers next, ranged attacks last, healers in the middle for your own safety, the rest wherever you can fit in."

"Aye, aye," Jorgen said.

"UNIT LEADERS, IF YOUR UNIT IS ALL ASSEMBLED, LOWER YOUR PENNONS. SERGEANTS, IF ALL THE UNITS YOU CAN SEE ARE ASSEMBLED, RAISE YOUR PENNONS AND WAVE THEM SO I CAN SEE THEM." A sparse forest of green pennons waved above the sea of heads. "EVERYBODY READY? ALL RIGHT, EVERYONE FACE EAST. LEADERS FACING EAST, UNITS FOLLOWING BEHIND THEM. WE'RE GOING TO WALK EAST." A few moments' pause. "GO!"

The army of Dereth set off. They didn't look quite like a disorganized rabble, but not much like a disciplined army on the march, either. Pfeil kept her unit (who, after all, had been hunting under the Raven for months) together, but many other units broke, split, scattered like spilled mercury, and reformed again indiscriminately with members of other units. Pets floated overhead and scampered underfoot.

"STOP." They stopped, after a fashion. Unit leaders waved pennons and shouted at straggling members, but the Raven's voice boomed above all. "RE-FORM YOUR UNITS. SAME DRILL AGAIN. SERGEANTS, WHEN THEY'RE BACK IN SHAPE LET ME SEE YOUR PENNONS." Three or four minutes later, the green pennons waved again. "ALL RIGHT, EVERYONE TURN NORTH. FORM UP BEHIND YOUR UNIT LEADERS. GO." The pack set off again.

This went on for a little over an hour, at the end of which the army, and even some of its component units, were back where they had started. "WE'LL BREAK FOR HALF AN HOUR. GET A DRINK OF WATER, TAKE A BIO BREAK, THEN GET BACK HERE." Many portaled away; others broke out canteens of water or retired discreetly behind the nearest tree. The Raven, wearing the red silk cloak Thromer had given her, climbed the slope of the plateau to watch the army dissolve and re-form. "Well, that wasn't too bad," she said to Jepetto. "Thanks," and drank the water he held out to her. "It'll get better."

"It could hardly get worse," Jepetto said.

"Oh yes, it could," the Raven said. "We could have a real enemy to fight, right now."

Half an hour later the groups re-formed, taking rather less time than they had taken before. "ALL RIGHT," the Raven said. "EACH UNIT LEADER HAS A PORTAL NEXUS. POP IT NOW, EVERYBODY TAKE THE PORTAL." Clusters of purple bubbles erupted all over the plain, and the army vanished.

They found themselves at the Citadel Southwest Outpost ringway drop, on the plain below the Drudge-haunted palisade. "FACE NORTH," the Raven said. "WE'RE TAKING THE ROAD NORTH. GO."

They started off, the Raven in her scarlet cloak at their head, Nalicana and Jepetto behind her. Thromer, with his unit of picked cousins, was near the head of the march. Sergeants moved among the units, keeping an eye on their fluid edges, and archers picked off the few Gloom Drudges and Mystics that taunted them from the barren hills. "Olthoi must have lived here once," Tapuaua said, looking at the fungus-crusted ground and the occasional head-high mushrooms. "How can the Drudges stand it?"

"Eat 'em," Scor-chan commented. "That why they so crabby. Hey! Lookit Lunar!"

Lunar Brownie, with her unit of eight Drudges more or less in order behind her, was moving forward toward the head of the march. "Back there," Jepetto told her. "You're supposed to be back there," but the Drudge monarch shook her head. "I first Free Drudge Hero in Dereth. Gotta be up front. Gotta talk to Big Bird." Jepetto shrugged and let them pass.

"Big Bird!" Lunar called as she approached the Raven. "Let us in front. Talk to other Drudges, maybe recruit." The Raven shrugged. "You're welcome to try." And so the Drudges marched on behind Nalicana, next to Thromer's unit that towered over their heads. A few insults were traded back and forth among the ranks, but they remained fairly good-natured ones, and Lunar called out from time to time, "Hey Drudge! Come join up! We gonna fight nasty bloodsuckers!" One or two did so, and Lunar's unit swelled to more than nine, but a magnificently-robed Drudge Chirurgeon, bringing up the rear, helped to keep them in line.

They marched through the rocky landscape for hours. Sometimes they kept to the road; sometimes the line of march took them scrambling over hills and into dry valleys. Standing on a peak, debating whether to climb down or jump, Tapuaua felt a breath of cold air, heard a rustle of silk, and raised a hand in half-salute to the invisible Shadow as he went by.

Eventually, by roundabout paths, they returned to the Outpost. "FIVE UNITS WILL ATTACK THE OUTPOST," the Raven said. "LUNAR BROWNIE'S, THROMER'S, ARKAEL'S, NELDOR'S, DENUA'S. THE REST OF YOU ARE DISMISSED; THANK YOU VERY MUCH; TOMORROW AT THE SAME TIME, CRAGSTONE PLAINS."

"Us first," Lunar said, and the Raven answered, "Yes, you may go first; you're all Heroes, aren't you? You should have no trouble. Lunar's unit first, then the others, in order named. Go."

Lunar's unit stormed into the Outpost. Drudge against Drudge, but it was not exactly combat. The raw recruits summoned by the Portal Beacon couldn't make any headway against Lunar's Drudge Heroes, who in defiance of regulations split up and tackled the recruits one-on-one, knocking their weapons from their hands and chattering excitedly to them about the advantages of civilization and friendly cooperation with the Big People. Several seemed to be convinced. "Okay!" Lunar called. "You join us, you come over here. You not join us, you stay over there, bye-bye!" She drew her disordered company, now numbering about fifteen, out of the line of battle as Thromer's unit and the rest poured in through the gates. The rebellious Drudges were slain in seconds, and the reinforcements portaled in by the Beacon suffered the same fate. "Right-on!" Lunar said when all was over. "You guys come with us, we gonna eat roast Darkenfowl, breadfruit, baby grubs onna stick, burn big bonfire!" and the Drudges vanished. No one was left in the outpost but Nalicana.

"Now," said Isin Dule, uncloaking. From somewhere about his person he drew out a small silver key, and handed it to her with a bow. It shone like Alb'arel, and its wards were smooth as water. "This is the Lifestone Key, made by Asheron. I have learned a few of its functions; let me show you." He led her over to the Lifestone at the back of the Outpost against the cliff wall, sparkling in its fountain. "Touch it with the Key." Nalicana did so, and with a little sound like chiming bells the blue crystal split apart, opening like a box to display a shape like a long pale blue scroll, shining faintly in the sheltered interior.

Nalicana's mouth fell open. "I built this Lifestone, a hundred years ago," she said, "and sent it out with the Explorers who never returned. I put nothing like this into it."

"But it is implicit in the design, which you learned from Asheron," Dule said. "You observe that the scroll is empty; no one is Lifestoned here. Close it again: touch it with your hand. Now tie yourself to it." Nalicana raised her hands to the Lifestone, and stood still while it cast a shower of blue light around her. "Now, open it again --- no, wait." A dozen new Drudge recruits had portaled in about the Portal Beacon. Dule turned to them and waved a black-cloaked arm, and the Drudges all screamed in terror and fled out the gateway to the north and escaped across the plain. "Now open it."

The scroll inside the Lifestone now displayed Nalicana's name, in small but distinct white letters. "Now, carefully, touch the Key to your name." She did this, and the lettering vanished. "If you were to die at this moment," Dule said, "you would die indeed, and never return. Close it again, and tie to it again ... there. Now you may re-tie at your leisure, wherever you wish.

"Those are the two functions of the Lifestone Key that I have discovered," the Shadow went on. "To open the Stone and learn the names of those who are tied to it, and to erase someone's name if you choose --- truly, as the old saying is, to erase his name from the book of life. Guard it carefully."

"I will," she said, and put it away in her pouch.

"Dule," she said, after a moment. "You desire true death, do you not? If you were to Lifestone here ...."

"It would avail me nothing," the Shadow said. "I want to live again before I die, even if only for an instant. No, this is not the path for me." She bowed silently, and they went their separate ways.

"I ache in every limb," Tapuaua grumbled over the evening fire. "I'm old, curse it. If it weren't night, I'd go back to the Northwest Outpost and bathe in the hot springs."

"Drink your tea and go to bed," Jorgen told her. "You'll feel better in the morning. You always feel better in the morning; you told me so yourself."

"Grrrrr," she said, and portaled away.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"This is the place," Kellin said. "Hahnain's Seminary, it's called, though to the best of my knowledge he never instructed students there. But there's a storeroom full of the most interesting artifacts."

"Cursed undead," Valind said. "Why did we not burn them all while we had the chance?"

"You are speaking metaphorically, I assume?" Kellin said with a thin smile. "You and I were not even born till centuries after the Dericost undead burned in the castle courtyards and town squares. But they're dead enough now, nothing but eidola in the depths of their dungeons. I'll take you to see them someday, when our tasks are over. Here is the portal." They portaled through, opened another door, and stopped short. The floor beneath them was littered with the corpses of Gurog Warlocks. "Someone has been here," Kellin said. "Walk warily. The storeroom is this way."

The door opened at his touch; the storeroom was empty of life. Kellin took the Battered Key from its pedestal as he approached the shelves. Valind followed him. He found a sword on a bottom shelf, and another placed all the way at the top, flush against the wall, as if whoever had put it there had not wished it to be seen. Valind picked up one magical object after another, sniffing or tut-tutting and putting it down again. Then she drew in a breath, and laboriously bent and knelt down on the floor --- for she too was old and had had a hard day and her bones ached --- and took from the bottom a celestrum as fine as a silken glove, pale off-white, with little gems that sparkled over the side opposite the palm. "This, now," she said, and said no more about it, but took off the one she had been wearing and drew the new one over her fingers.

They let the storeroom door close behind them, and Kellin led the way across the room to the other door. He used the key and watched the door open.

Inside, sitting on the edge of the dais, her back resting against the pedestal for the Memory Crystal, was a slender young Empyrean woman, no older than six or seven hundred, her black hair bound up into a knot, her eyes fixed on the crystal that was Aulatah's prison. As they stepped inside, she turned her head to look at them.

"Good evening," she said. "Have you come to do the Hero Quest? Am I in your way?" She stood up as if to leave, but Kellin raised his hand to stay her.

"I'm Cashtal," he said, "vassal of Palerath, of the True Inheritors. This is my vassal Aurian."

"Honored," she said politely. "I am Nalicana."

"Honored," Kellin echoed. "We are a growing allegiance, all pure Yalaini. Perhaps you would care to join us?"

"Thank you, no," Nalicana said, with a little bow. "I swore allegiance to Asheron long ago, and I will never be forsworn."

"Asheron's dead."

"Is he? We never found his body." She smiled. "But I am keeping you from your Quest. Good night." She disappeared.

"That's strange," Kellin said. "She said, 'we never found his body.' Asheron fell to Geraine seven hundred years after the Sundering. None of us were there."

"You idiot," Valind said. "That was Nalicana. Asheron's favorite pupil, whom he brought back into the world in what the rabble call the Golden Age. I can well believe she swore fealty to Asheron, and you the fool want to induct her into the True Inheritors? Induct a furry Tumerok and a pack of chittering Drudges, while you're at it."

"Was she really?" Kellin asked, and shook his head in amazement. He was not used to finding that he had failed to take something into account.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The hours were lumbering on towards dawn, and Tapuaua could not sleep. The aches in her muscles were nothing compared to the clouds that hung upon her spirit, and her fitful dreams had been filled with Olthoi and dimly-glimpsed Falatacot, taller than trees, with deadly eyes. She woke for the fourth or fifth time and warmed her hands at the embers of her fire. Finally she said, "Oh, well," and took her drum and portaled away.

Cragstone, Rithwic, Cavendo. The dewy grass was cold under her feet in the darkness, and the occulted moon with its mysterious lights was drifting toward its setting in the east. She scrambled down the sides of the pit and ran through the portal. The Skyport, the Concourse, the Aerie.

The moon was touching the horizon now, and the eastern sky was growing lighter. She went up the stairs onto the highest platform, with its five tall spires arranged in a quincunx, the four lesser spires casting their shadows from the four cardinal directions toward the tallest central spire. The place had clearly been a shrine of the Light from early days, and the records of the Knorr Expeditions of Sirda Strathelar's day told how they had cleared it of fungi and molted Olthoi carapaces, cleaned the stones and replanted the turf around it, and left it to observe the daily rising and setting of Au while they retired to the Shelters. It was a good place to watch the sunrise. She crouched with her back against the eastern spire, and settled down to wait.

The moon had nearly set when she heard footsteps, and a sniff. "What has the world come to," a woman's acid voice said, "when this sacred place is the haunt of the lesser races?"

Tapuaua glanced upwards into the narrow face that was looking down its nose at her. "It used to be the haunt of Olthoi," she said calmly. "That's even lesser than me."

"You do not belong here. Go away."

"It was the noble Caerlin II," Tapuaua said, "who said, 'As the rain falls upon the just and the unjust, so the Light shines upon every creature under Au.' "

The woman said nothing further, except for a faint sound that might have been the grinding of her teeth. They watched in silence until Au, veiled in bright clouds, had risen above the horizon. Then the woman gestured with her glittering right hand and vanished. Now Tapuaua could smile, exposing many sharp teeth.

"Horrid old woman," said a man's voice.

She looked up again, but could see nothing; the morning light was bright in her eyes. "Well, yes," she said. "I did recognize her."

"These are dark days," the man said. "We shall need every power we can bring to bear against the enemy. I have a gift for you, Tapuaua."

"Sir, I am no fighter. I am a healer."

"Only a healer can wield this weapon. Will you take it? Can you trust me?"

"I can't see you." She squinted, and rubbed her eyes, but whoever was speaking was invisible in the bright light. "I would have said that nothing evil could come into this shrine, except I've just watched the sunrise with one. On the other hand, I know at least one who can't come here, whom I'd trust a good long way."

"I know. So would I. And I am willing to trust you with this, Tapuaua, as I would no other person on Auberean. Will you take it?"

She squinted into the unrevealing light again, and shrugged, and held out her hand. A little thing like a rattle fell into it, patterned in stripes of black and gold, its handle hanging from a looped cord that could serve as a baldric around her shoulder, to hold the thing in place. She put her head and shoulder through the loop, and turned the thing cautiously over in her hands.

"Go to Linvak Massif," the man said. "Find a Revenant and use this upon him. Then return and tell me what you saw."

"I will," she said, and tucked the rattle's head into her pouch, and took her drum and portaled away.

The Nepeth Strata, gently rolling away from Ondekodo, were as green now in early fall as they were ever going to get. Banderlings and Beetles squabbled half-heartedly over choice territorial spots, and a Revenant Praetor watched them dully, drifting mindlessly over the turf. Tapuaua ran up to him. His eye sockets were empty, and the flesh hung in strips from his bones as he shambled toward her. She drew the rattle from her pouch and shook it toward him, once, with a flick of her wrist, and was reminded of Valind flicking her gloved hand to portal away.

But the rattle clicked loudly once, and cast a great cloud of pale golden light toward the Revenant. It enveloped him, and seemed to sink into his tattered tissues, making him glow from within as he fell to his knees and toppled over. She approached cautiously. Strands of light were playing over his skin ... skin? But he had skin, stretched over flesh that covered his bones, and his eyelids opened over eyes. She crouched beside him, and his thin hand reached out to clutch hers. "Armaiti?" he whispered. "I can hardly see you. Is it you?"

"Yes," she lied. "Be easy; I'm here."

"So tired," he murmured. "Hard to breathe. ... Am I breathing?"

"Yes, you are breathing," she said, and it was true, but his breath was increasingly labored and it seemed clear he would not be breathing for long. She held him in her arms, while he murmured of ancient memories, till his breath ran out and his head fell back. She laid him down on the turf and watched as the body reverted to bone and tattered flesh, and fell into dust and blew away in the wind.

And something clattered, and hit her sharply across the back of her head, and she leaped to her feet and pounded at her drum, throwing out wave after wave of harm and lightning till the Horrid Beetle that had attacked her was lying twitching on its back. "Stupid bug," she said, "let me ALONE," and burst into tears.

"This way," a voice said. "Come; you can't fight Banderlings when you can't see. Follow me."

"I can't fight Banderlings anyway," she mumbled. "I'm a healer, curse it."

"I know. You have just done a great work of healing. Come in here."

They were inside a room, none of the new shops, some Ondekodo building that had never opened before, and in the semidarkness she could make out a lighted shape, a shape made of light, as if something had stood in the path of darkness and cast the opposite of a shadow. The shape of a tall man, robed and hooded.

"Oh!" she said, and began to weep again. "My Lord! Is it you?"