“They all know that, Big-Me,” Eleria said. “I think you’d all better start smiling. Mother’s coming.”

Balacenia turned quickly, and sure enough, Mother, surrounded by the seething colors of the aurora, was walking down through the imaginary sky. “Are we having a little family get-together again?” she asked with a slightly amused expression.

“I thought it might be best to share what you told me about the possible extinction of people, Mother,” Balacenia replied, “and Eleria wanted to talk with you.”

Mother gave child Eleria a startled look. “You brought her here? What were you thinking of, Balacenia?”

“It’s not her fault, Mother,” Eleria said. “I wanted her to bring me here. She’s already explained to the other members of our generation that when Dahlaine seized us while we were still sleeping and then hurled us back to infancy, he was splitting us right down the middle. Doesn’t that sort of mean that when the elders go to sleep, there’ll be eight of us instead of just four? We may be taking on our tasks in just one body each, but we’re different enough now that each of us will have separate personalities. That might be all right, though. We little ones will probably be able to suggest alternatives to the big ones—and we know much more about what’s happening out there in reality than they do. You told Big-Me—Balacenia—that the Vlagh thing wants to make people stumble off toward extinction. We know people better than our elders do, so we can help keep people around when we need them.”

“She could be right, you know,” Mother told Balacenia and her relatives.

“Of course I’m right, Mother,” Eleria said. “I’m always right—or hadn’t you noticed that? Now I think you owe me a whole lot of kisses, don’t you?” And she held out her arms to Mother.

2

Narasan and Sorgan had only recently returned to Mount Shrak from the upper end of the now eternally burning Crystal Gorge. After they’d reported what had happened in the gorge, they went outside to privately discuss what was almost certain to come up before long.

Balacenia was there, of course, but not there at the same time. The Eleria part of her had been aware of Mother’s clever trick, and it hadn’t been difficult to duplicate.

“You do know what’s going to pop up very soon, don’t you, Sorgan?” Narasan asked his friend.

“Let me think about it for a moment or two,” Sorgan replied with an imitation frown. Then he snapped his fingers. “I think somebody might just come along and offer us tons of gold if we’ll agree to fight still another war in some part of the Land of Dhrall that hasn’t been invaded yet.”

“There’s only one left, Sorgan,” Narasan replied.

“Why, now that you mention it, I do believe that you’re right, friend Narasan. Isn’t it odd that it never occurred to me?”

“Have you just about finished having fun?” Narasan asked.

“You seem just a bit grumpy for a man who’s been on the winning side in three wars, my friend,” Sorgan said.

“I’m not really grumpy, Sorgan,” Narasan replied. “I’m sure there’ll be a lot of screaming and weeping, but I will not work for the queen of the East, no matter how much gold she offers.”

“Bite your tongue,” Sorgan said. “We work for gold, Narasan, and we always win because we love gold.”

“I don’t,” Narasan replied, “at least not enough to spend any more time with Divine Aracia. Just the sight of her makes me want to vomit.”

“Don’t look at her, then. I’ll take care of the negotiations and all that. And no, I won’t cheat you out of your share. Were your people able to pinpoint the most likely route the enemies will take?”

“It wasn’t all that hard, Sorgan. It’s called ‘Long-Pass,’ and it’s the only possible route our enemy will be able to follow. The mountain range blocks everything else off.”

“That makes things even simpler,” Sorgan said. “My men and I’ll go down to ‘temple town’ and swindle our employer out of just about everything of value. I’ll tell her that you’re busy building forts, so you don’t have time to pay her a call.”

“I still think I’d rather just go on home, Sorgan,” Narasan said. “I’m not really sure that I’ll even be necessary down there. Our ‘unknown friend’ might fry another ten thousand or so enemies before you and I can even reach for our swords.”

Then Ekial and Trenicia came out of Dahlaine’s cave to join their friends. “Have we made any decision yet?” Ekial asked.

“We’ve sort of worked our way around a little problem,” Sorgan said. “Our friend, honorable Narasan here, doesn’t want to have anything to do with Zelana’s older sister. I think she rubbed him the wrong way a few times while he was down there. Anyway, I think we might have come up with a way to keep him away from her—far enough away from her, at least, to keep him from trying to chop her all to pieces.”

“Are you really considering going back there, Narasan?” Trenicia demanded.

“Sorgan sort of rubbed my nose in ‘obligation,’ Trenicia,” Narasan replied. “In a way, I suppose he was right. Our war with that thing out in the Wasteland isn’t over yet. We might not like Aracia very much, but if we abandon her, we’ll put her relatives in great danger.”

“If you’re going to defend her, you’ll almost have to be in her general vicinity, won’t you, Narasan?” Ekial asked.

“Not really, Prince Ekial,” Narasan replied. “The invasion of her Domain will almost certainly come down Long-Pass, and we’ll need forts there to hold back the bug-people. I’ll take my men up there, and we’ll build forts. Sorgan has volunteered to handle the negotiations with unspeakably holy Aracia. Our dear friend Sorgan here is a master swindler, so he’ll probably empty Aracia’s treasury down to the last penny, but I won’t even have to look at her.”

“Swindler?” Sorgan protested.

“It’s a step or two up from ‘thief,’ friend Sorgan,” Narasan said with a faint smile.

“I’ll go with you to the temple, if you don’t mind, Captain Hook-Beak,” Ekial said. “I know of several ways to bump up prices, so I might be useful.”

“And I’ll stay with Narasan,” Queen Trenicia said. “Just keep that liar away from me. Just the thought of her makes my sword start to itch.”