any leniency or mercy to To-gai is at its end. They dare to conquer Dharyan? Well, I will respond, do not doubt. As I promised Pestle, I now promise you. Call up all the men of Jacintha. Assemble the garrisons. In a fortnight, we will send fifteen thousand soldiers marching to retake Dharyan, and with them will be the greatest engines of war we can devise. Let the Dragon of To-gai show her-self. Perhaps her fiery breath will kill a few, but then she will fall, right be-fore the stunned and horrified eyes of her foolish followers.
And then where will they turn?
"Back to the steppes of To-gai? Ah, but we will pursue them, from Dharyan and from the south, where Yatol Tohen Bardoh will march with fifteen thousand more soldiers."
Merwan Ma rocked back on his heels, amazed by how profoundly this disaster had sparked his master to action. Over the last years, skirmishes against To-gai had been just that, minor battles. But now the God-Voice was readying for an all-out war against the people of the steppes, as he had done a decade and more before.
The Shepherd left the audience room quite unsteadily, quite shaken, but also quite reassured that his master was in control.
Yakim Douan paced for a long time, growing more and more agitated How dare these ungrateful To-gai-ru strike so boldly and mercilessly jnt Behren? Hadn't he brought the barbarians some semblance of civilizatin Hadn't he brought a better way of life to the wilderness of To-gai?
His breath coming in short and harsh rasps, the Chezru Chieftain conti ued to pace, kicking his heels against the floor with each step.
A sudden burning pain erupted in his left shoulder, spreading like a way of fire down his arm.
Douan stumbled and nearly fell over. His visio blurred briefly, and when it cleared, the man realized that he was sitting in his chair again.
And now the pain was in his chest.
Yakim Douan struggled to regain his footing, then stumbled to the door He started to call out for Merwan Ma, but changed his mind, realizing where he had to go, and realizing that he had to go there alone.
Step by step, the stubborn old man made his way along the corridors to the chalice room. The pain had lessened considerably by then, but still Yakim Douan grabbed up the chalice eagerly, so much so that he spilled some of the blood on his robes and the floor. Clutching the chalice to his chest, the man fell into the magical gemstone, diving into its swirling gray depths.
He went inside himself, trying desperately to find the harmony of his body, the natural and healthy rhythm. He began to breathe easier almost immediately, and not from his healing powers, but merely from his realiza-tion that nothing serious had befallen him, a point accentuated by a series of loud belches.
Yakim Douan laughed at himself and his desperation, a clear reminder of how much he had to lose. He was immortal, but only as long as he re-mained in control of the situation about him. If a sudden, burning attack felled him, would he be able to spiritually connect himself to the hematite in time to soar out and find a replacement body?
Yakim rubbed the base of the chalice, his fingers separated from the gemstone by a thin sheet of metal. He could feel its presence in there, its tangible power to take him across the generations and the centuries.
A crash from the back of the room startled him, and he turned to see Merwan Ma standing there, a look of both surprise and horror on his face, and a plate of utensils, the sacrificial knife among them, lying on the floor at his feet.
Yakim considered his own appearance, clutching the chalice, blood on him and on the floor, in light of Merwan Ma's expression, and he knew at once that the Shepherd understood that there was something more to this chalice.
"Ah, yes, my young attendant," the Chezru Chieftain said with as much calm as he could muster.
"Finishing your duties before going out to the Chezhou-Lei, I see."
Ma stammered something undecipherable, but otherwise did spend. He bent low and picked up the utensils. lO"V6'hat is it?" Yakim Douan asked bluntly, and coldly, and with enough hority to freeze the poor young man where he knelt. '?''God-Voice?"
"You are surprised to see me in here.
"Yes God-Voice. I had thought that you would rest in your audience "But it is much more than that, is it not?" Yakim