workmen, attendants, pack animals,

and camp followers of Vihaz’s army.

Tahj scowled up at the mountains.

The way was steep, but Vihaz

had severed the tongue of a captain

who suggested another route.

A man of honor must honor his father,

but Tahj had been humiliated

when Vihaz grasped openly

at the soothsayer’s prophecy:

If you lead your army

into the Shahness Mountains,

the hundred dragons of Sumbral

will fly to meet you.

Unbalanced by hatred of Xau,

Tahj’s father now mistook himself

for a second King Nariz.

Should Tahj therefore challenge him?

As Tahj, doubting thus, looked up

at the mountains, he beheld dark specks

shifting against the blue-white peaks.

The army stopped. Tahj stopped.

The dark specks flew toward them,

their wings moving like hinges,

the largest of them greater by far

than any creature Tahj had known.

Ten, twenty, thirty winged beasts,

their color resolving from darkness

to deep wine-red, their scales agleam,

steam issuing from their nares.

One of the king’s heralds

called out Vihaz’s name,

once, twice, three times,

and the army shouted after him.

Tahj, silent, sat his horse

(the horse’s flanks heaving

but the horse rooted in place),

as the soldiers shouted behind him.

Then neared the greatest beast.

Its shadow darkened the ground

below Tahj as its clawed foot

reached and seized Vihaz’s crown.

The great dragon wheeled about,

the crown dangling in its claws,

as a second dragon, near as large

as the first, descended.

The second beast grabbed up

Vihaz’s purple-and-gold banner

and, ripping it to shreds,

dropped the pieces to the ground.

So, at last, seeing the dragons

thus repudiate Vihaz,

doubt left Tahj and he cried out,

“I call challenge upon you, Father!”

At which the winged beasts

climbed the air and circled far above,

watching as Tahj dismounted

and as Vihaz dismounted also.

Then Tahj bowed to his father,

his sword still sheathed,

but Vihaz, who did not bow,

rushed upon his son.

And Tahj, hearing him come,

flung himself to the ground,

rolled, drew his sword,

and smote his father.

Thus fell Vihaz, King of Sumbral,

and the herald called out,

“Vihaz is dead. All glory

to Tahj, King of Sumbral!”

And there before the eyes of men,

beneath the eye of the sun,

the greatest beast descended

clasping the golden winged crown.

Tahj stood, his sword dripping,

his hair flattened to his scalp

by the beat of the beast’s wings,

his eyes fixed upon the crown.

But as he watched, the beast

crushed and crumpled the crown,

dropped the twisted mangled metal

on Vihaz’s corpse, and flew away.

THE PATH TO PEACE

A son of your line will spill

royal blood, king’s blood,

if you lead your army

into the Shahness Mountains.

Standing, sword dripping,

over his father’s corpse,

Tahj laughed bitterly.

His father had thought

the prophecy promised victory.

But truth had proved as twisted

as the mangled crown

that lay atop his father,

atop the slit still spilling

its proof of Tahj’s betrayal.