Ethrian became filled with all the things that needed doing. “Where are those dragons?” The two beasts dropped from the sky. “Did I do that?”

“No. The Great One brought them. From now on, though, I’ll manage them. You concentrate on the soldiers.”

Ethrian frowned. The beast was not totally stupid. “All right.” He hoisted himself onto a scaly back. In a moment he and Sahmanan were airborne.

As they sped westward he wondered what he would do. He really felt no different.

He felt it when he glided toward his waiting army. It was a vacuum that consisted of tens of thousands of vacuums waiting to be filled. Visions fluttered through his mind: The mountains as seen through countless pairs of dead eyes. He was disoriented for a moment. Then he began seeing with all those eyes at once. He felt the cord of power reaching back to the stone beast. His power. Power he could use any way he wanted.

The dragons landed. Ethrian peered over his mount’s head. His silent army had turned to face him.

“I’ll be damned,” he said. “I don’t have to do much, do I?”

“You have to decide who does what, when, and where. The rest is unconscious.”

“I just tell so many to go attack and they will?”

“Yes. You have to tell them how and where.”

He closed everything out and went out of his body. Eagerly, he swept up the mountains. He studied the enemy position, and returned. “I’m ready to start,” he announced, and heard the amazement in his own voice.

“What should I do?”

“Just wait right now. Let me find the men I need.”

In the heart of the night, when life was at its lowest ebb, the army of the dead returned to the attack. They went in silence. They did not move in massed formations as before; they were scattered all over the slopes. A fall of shafts would harm only a few.

The first ten thousand bore bows or crossbows. They did not try to close with the soldiers of the Dread Empire. They stayed out and sniped.

“That looks good,” Ethrian said. “Sahmanan, take your dragon up. Distract the Tervola.”

In moments she was speeding toward the pass, a spear of light preceding her.

Now the spearmen and javelineers, Ethrian thought, and another ten thousand men went in.

The mountains flickered under the fury of an exchange between Sahmanan and the Tervola. Lances of fire scored the underbelly of the sky. Ethrian mounted his dragon. He lifted the monster till he could see the battle’s shape.

The spearmen were advancing perfectly, widely spaced. They passed the snipers and began skirmishing with troops the enemy had sent to rout the bowmen. They did not do well, one on one, but were having more effect than had the masses in the stone beast’s assault. They were more supple and quicker under Ethrian’s more immediate control. Shinsan’s skirmish line fell back. The spearmen reached the earthworks. Snipers kept hurling darts into the fray.