would be beyond folly for you to try to 'vertake us. And think not of any siege, though it would be amusing to tch vour army sitting day after week after month down in the arid valley, for we are quite self-sufficient."
"You will come down," the Chezhou-Lei warrior retorted immediately, his sudden confidence raising the mystic's suspicions. ?Your reticence was not unanticipated. We have gathered all the To-gai-ru people of three nearby villages, and will begin their executions in the morning, one each day until you come down."
With that, the man bowed and turned about and started down the steps, leaving a very stunned and very confused Pagonel standing there on the bridge, staring.
Master Cheyes walked up and put a hand on the man's shoulder.
"How badly have I erred?" Pagonel asked.
"You followed your vision, so there can be no error. That is the edict of our understanding. You wear the Belt of All Colors, honestly earned, and so you must follow that which is in your heart, whatever the consequences."
"The consequences to me or to all of our brethren?"
"To both," Cheyes answered. ?Your vision and fate has brought this bat-tle to us, but would not the Chezhou-Lei have come anyway, once they came to understand that your heart lies with the To-gai-ru in the struggle against the Yatols? Surely the present incarnation of the Chezru Chieftain has shown a fondness for conquest, and so why would we believe that we are exempt? Perhaps this fight is a better manner of defense for us than if all the Behrenese legions had joined their elite warriors in coming against the Walk of Clouds."
"Then you believe that we are to fight."
"It would seem the proper thing to do," said Master Cheyes.
That afternoon, a Jhesta Tu mystic ran down the steps toward the valley floor, taking a measure of the gathered Chezhou-Lei, then ran back up to report their numbers. The three masters of the Walk of Clouds didn't want to send the whole of the Jhesta Tu down to do battle, though every mystic had expressed a desire to go. But the masters, who had to look ahead be-yond the immediate situation, knew that the order had to be preserved, whatever the outcome down below.
As did one other. ?This is as much my fight as it is yours," Brynn protested when she learned that she would not be included in the battle. Her wounds had healed already - a testament to the power of the powrie beret and also the fine tending of the Jhesta Tu - and she seemed more than ready to jump back into battle.
"It is not," Pagonel answered curtly.
"You were defending me!"
The mystic chuckled. ?The fight outside of Dharyan has nothing to do with this," he explained. ?It is an excuse, and nothing more, to begin a bat-tle that has been ongoing for centuries, before Brynn Dharielle ever saw her first sunrise, and one that will continue long after you have viewed your last sunset."
"I can fight as well as most..." she started to protest.
"As well as any, excepting myself, Cheyes, and Dasa," the mystic con-ceded with a smile.
But that smile did not disarm Brynn, not at that time. ?Then let me go and fight beside you," she said. ?I have studied here through the weeks."
"You are not Jhesta Tu," Pagonel replied. ?You could be - perhaps someday you will desire to be. But you are only a visitor here at this time, and so this fight is not your own. And, I fear, any engagement that you have in it will likely hamper your own goals. Have you so forgotten those that you will willingly go down against are the mightiest adversaries that the Chezru Chieftain can offer?"
Brynn stiffened her jaw, wanting so badly to defy that simple logic.
Seventy-five mystics did leave the Walk of Clouds soon after, led by Mas-ter Cheyes and Master Pagonel, with Matron Dasa looking on from the bridge, Brynn Dharielle standing beside her.
Brynn Dharielle moved off from Matron Dasa, allowing her anger and frustration, and particularly her desire to be alone, to show clearly. She understood Pagonel's reasoning for excluding her from the battle, and even agreed with it, based on that reasoning. But that gave her-little solace, watching these friends she had recently come to know walking down into severe danger...
And so the stubborn young lady, the same little girl who had so often found ways around the strict edicts of the TouePalfar, took the literal mean-ing of Pagonel's command to heart.