“If I might be so bold, Lord. Why don’t you stay at the heart of the web and let your officers do the running?”

“You make perfect sense. I don’t know why. I just want to be on the scene. Maybe because I’ve never been there before.”

They passed through the portal and climbed the dune.

Hsu Shen was in big trouble. He was close now, but horsemen were about to split around him and cut him off. Shih-ka’i checked the sky. The dragon riders were engaged in complex aerobatics, trying to vanquish Meng Chiao’s demon. The demon had left his mark. Their numbers had been reduced.

“They’re very clumsily controlled, Lord,” the demon’s master observed.

“They’re like the men we met in the mountains?”

“Dead? Yes, Lord. However, the riders aren’t human. We obtained a specimen and sent it through for examination.”

“Good. Good. Casualties?”

“Only two men so far, Lord.”

“Excellent.”

“Shaft, Lord,” Pan ku said.

“Thank you.” Shih-ka’i took another look at Hsu Shen’s situation. He would have to spend at least one shaft to salvage the advance party. He caught the weapon, imagined the line. The missile came down. It shattered the pursuing riders.

“Begin evacuating the troops,” Shih-ka’i ordered. “We don’t have much more time.”

“Perhaps not enough to get us all out, Lord.”

Shih-ka’i considered the size of the approaching horde. “We’ll form around the portal. Send the men through first.”

Meng Chiao trembled. “As you command, Lord.”

“Shaft, Lord.”

“Thank you, Pan ku.” Shih-ka’i continued to study the enemy. Hsu Shen was safe for the moment. Should he drop the weapon into the crowd surrounding the stone thing? Those two figures atop its head….

He targeted, connecting shaft and stone head.

The line bent immediately. “I need help, gentlemen. Targeting on the idol’s head.”

Slowly, slowly, the foot of the line crawled back toward the great beast’s head….

The shaft arrived too soon. Shih-ka’i could not bring it down where he wanted. It hit the beast’s shoulder. Tons of molten rock blew away, showering the soldiers swarming below.

“I think you did more damage that way than you would have with a direct shot,” Meng Chiao observed. “Look at the swath that cut.”

Shih-ka’i did not respond. He was watching the minute dots scamper down the monster’s back. Too late to get them now. “Meng Chiao. Pass the word. After we bring the next shaft down, everyone who can should call up a demon and turn it loose.”

“The thing controlling them is crazy-angry, Lord,” Meng Chiao observed. “It’s not doing well at all. Minds me of a spiteful child breaking its toys.”

“Uhm. Keep it angry.”

“Shaft, Lord.”

“Aye.” Shih-ka’i glanced at Hsu Shen. He would make it with less dramatic help. “Help me, gentlemen. I’m going to bring this one down across its snout.”

He imagined a hard, iron arc. His companions added their wills to his. This time there was less resistance. The enemy mind remained distracted by anger.

An instant after the last shaft struck, the desert again reverberated to a great angry roar. “That one hit a nerve,” Pan ku remarked.