Emerahl regarded the woman thoughtfully, sensing a sullen respect. Why so friendly now? Perhaps I didn’t take as much money as she expected. I still can’t get used to the way prices have inflated over the last century.

“I’ll remember that,” she replied. The servant appeared. He thrust a bag into her arms. She gave the contents a quick examination, then hoisted it over her shoulder. “Look after those girls,” she told Rozea. “You don’t deserve them.”

Then she turned her back and started along the road toward Toren.

44

As the sun rose above the horizon, light spilled over the Plains of Gold. The shadows of the Circlian priests, priestesses, soldiers and archers stretched out like fingers pointed in accusation toward the mass of black-robed invaders.

The last shred of lingering weariness disappeared as Tryss watched the two armies draw closer. Of the entire Circlian army, only the Siyee had rested the previous night. It had been a restless sleep even so. Few were able to keep their minds from the coming battle. He suspected that if the landwalkers had stopped their march they might not have gained much rest from the long night either. Even from the air he had seen signs of agitation and nervousness among them.

Black flapping shapes rose from among the Pentadrians—an evil cloud of potential death. Tryss heard exclamations of dismay around him. He glanced at the men and women nearby. People of his own tribe. Not his family or wife—the Speakers had decided it was too much to ask a flight leader to take his relations into battle—yet tribes were never so large that a Siyee didn’t know every member. It was still hard to think that these people might die if he made a mistake in judgment.

His stomach clenched. He ignored it and took a deep breath.

“These black birds have beaks and claws,” he called. “But they must get near us to use them. We have darts and arrows. We will kill them before they reach us.”

He did not know if his words had any effect. Perhaps their expressions were a little less grim and a little more determined. The birds circled above their masters, waiting for the battle to begin.

The coming together of the two armies was excruciatingly slow. Tryss watched as landwalker advanced on landwalker, creeping over gently undulating grassland. The Pentadrian army reached the top of a low ridge on one side of a valley and stopped. The Circlians marched up the far side of the valley. They, too, halted.

The two armies were still.

Then a lone black-clad figure stepped forward from among the Pentadrians. Sunlight glinted off something hanging about his neck. Tryss noted the five white figures standing before the Circlian army. One moved forward.

The two met at the bottom of the valley.