‘Is this some kind of joke?’ Kargan spluttered. ‘Were you there yourself?’

‘No, Great King. But I brought witnesses. They say there was a man leading the raid. He was tall, and carried a glowing sword, and had a braided beard. It is clear that this must be the same warrior I saw kill your cousin on the walls of Malakai. Even many of my men now know the name Palemon. There were six of them, all on the backs of dragons. The five who rode behind Palemon were fire-wielding sorcerers.’

‘Ridiculous,’ Kargan snorted.

To Kargan’s surprise, rather than continue to keep his distance, Javid came forward to stand beside him and Dhuma. Normally, joining them would have been a serious breach of protocol, but Dhuma was obviously too fatigued and worried to care.

‘Lord Kargan, you should take this seriously.’ Javid frowned. ‘When I was a child,’ he said in the irritating lecturing tone he sometimes used, ‘my mother told me stories about Aleuthea. There were always dragons involved – dragons, giants, and serpents. We have all heard that the Aleutheans killed the eldren and destroyed their homeland, but have you ever wondered why?’ Javid spread his hands. ‘From a small island nation, they were powerful enough to dominate the rest of the world. We must face the truth. It appears that this Palemon may be who he says he is.’

‘Tell me, Javid, what did the stories say about fire-wielding sorcerers?’ Kargan growled. ‘And about a man with a glowing sword?’

‘The Aleutheans possessed magic. Wizards with staffs appear in all of our myths. Sometimes they help the heroes in the stories, providing guidance and prophecy; other times they terrorize a village or a town, and it is the hero who must defeat the sorcerer to reclaim the princess.’

Kargan shook his head. He turned back to Dhuma. ‘You say there were six of them?’

Dhuma nodded.

‘Just six. No matter how powerful they are, we can deal with six. And we were unprepared for an attack from the sky. We may have lost our barges, but we have a powerful fleet here in Lamara.’

Kargan began to pace again as he pondered.

‘Dhuma, I’m ordering the army home,’ he said. ‘We won’t attempt to cross the Shadrian Passage again. We have to put them down, and quickly. No land crossings. We need to assault Malakai directly.’

‘You have my agreement,’ Dhuma said.

Kargan punched his fist into his palm. ‘This time we’ll travel over water. I’ll lead the fleet personally, through the Chasm and into the Aleuthean Sea. We’ll embark from Lamara, warships in the lead, filled with archers. We’ll bring the infantry in a second wave.’

‘I’ll talk to the captains,’ Dhuma said. ‘Some of them have experience fighting wildren.’