"How long will it take you to get to the Sea of the East?" Cho-Hag asked.

"A couple of days," Anheg told him. "You can move a ship pretty fast when you've got the current behind you. It will take your army a week at least to get back to the forts, won't it?"

"Probably," Cho-Hag said. "The infantry can't move all that fast. There's Brendig! I'll send him to fetch Rhodar." He shouted down to the Sendar. "Colonel Brendig, see if you can find Rhodar. Ask him to join us."

"What's that?" Barak asked suddenly.

"What's what?" Anheg demanded.

"I thought I saw something out there - way to the south - where you can just start to make out that hilltop."

"I don't see anything."

"It was just a flicker - something moving."

"Probably a Murgo scout creeping in for a look." Anheg laughed shortly. "I don't imagine we'll be able to keep what happened here a secret for very long."

"There it is again," Barak said.

"I saw it that time, too," King Cho-Hag agreed.

There was a long silence as the sky imperceptibly grew lighter. Ce'Nedra held her breath.

"Belar!" Anheg swore in a stunned voice. "They stretch for miles!"

"Lelldorin!" Barak shouted down from the wall. "Brendig's gone to get Rhodar. Go find them and tell them to get up here at once. The plain to the south is covered with Murgos."

Chapter Sixteen

"LADY POLGARA!" CE'NEDRA Cried, jerking back the flap of the tent. "Lady Polgara!"

"What is it, Ce'Nedra?" Polgara's voice came from the darkness inside the tent.

"Barak and Anheg are up on the walls of the city," the princess said in a frightened voice. "They just saw a Murgo army coming up from the south."

Polgara came quickly out into the firelight, holding the sleepy Errand by the hand. "Where's Beldin?" she demanded.

"I haven't seen him since early last night."

Polgara raised her face and closed her eyes. A moment or so later there was a rushing sound of wings, and the large hawk settled to the sand not far from their flickering fire.

Beldin was swearing sulfurously even as he shimmered and blurred back into his natural shape.

"How did they slip past you, Uncle?" Polgara asked him.

"There are Grolims with them," he growled, still sizzling the air around him with oaths. "The Grolims could feel me watching, so the troops moved only at night, and the Grolims shielded them."

"Where did they hide in the daytime?"

"In the Thullish villages, apparently. There are dozens of communities out there. It never occurred to me to pay all that much attention to them." He began to swear again, berating himself savagely for having missed the movement of the Murgo army.

"There's no point in swearing about it, Uncle," Polgara told him coolly. "It's done, now."