It was Gulamendis who spoke. “I want to go over this with you in detail, Amirantha, but unless I am completely misled by something I don’t see, what my brother and I witnessed is one part of a very nasty civil war in the demon realm.”

“Civil war?”

“We know Maarg is dead, but someone is keeping alive the notion that he’s still around, still in command. But he’s not. Pug saw his corpse on the world of Shila, and the demon king we saw on Telesan was an illusion; we can assume Maarg is dead. Even if he’s returned to the demon realm, it will be some time before he rises to power again, if ever.

“That leaves us with two questions: who’s pretending to be Maarg and why?”

“Three,” said Amirantha. “Who’s he fighting?”

“Four,” amended Pug. “What has any of this to do with Midkemia?”

The three sat back, thoughtful, as they realized that for every question they had answered since the Demon Legion started threatening Midkemia, they now had two new ones.

CHAPTER 14

SLAUGHTER

Pug signaled.

Magnus followed Gulamendis’s instructions and they found themselves suddenly standing in a vast chamber. The Oracle of Aal rose up above them, her magnificent dragon form made all the more impressive by the multifaceted layer of jewels that adorned her body, the result of a magic fusion that took place in a battle with a Dreadlord over a century before.

“You come uninvited, Pug,” said the Oracle, though her tone was neutral; it was a statement, not an accusation.

“I face the unknown, Lady,” answered Pug. “A great danger approaches, and I would know what you can tell me.”

The Oracle was silent for a while, as if weighing the question, then spoke: “Too many futures, most of them dire, some ending life as we know it. Too many nexuses of possibility.”

“Is there one thing you can tell me to enhance our possibility of successfully avoiding the most dire of consequences?”

“Two waves, the one you see and the one behind it. You remember, from your youth.”

Pug was startled. No one knew of that moment, or at least he was almost certain he had never spoken of it. It was the day he had first spoken with his future teacher, Kulgan. He had fallen into a doze on the beach and was awakened by a sudden storm. He had been knocked over by a wave on the beach and as he was attempting to rise, one behind it swept him under. “I remember,” he said. “It was a lesson I’ve remembered all my life.”

“You must seek out the hidden wave. The wave before you is meant to distract, to bleed your resources and scatter your focus.”

“Can you tell me any more?”