walk away from you now, would you stop me?" Merwan Ma asked.
"No."
Point made, the Shepherd rested back.
"But you will not walk away, Merwan Ma," Pagonel went on. ?You have come to see the truth of this, and this journey to Jacintha is as much your quest as it is mine."
"More," the shepherd said, his voice as grim and determined as Pagonel had ever heard, indeed, as grim and determined as it had ever been. ?You speak of salvation, and that was the promise of Yatol. But what is that promise if all else is a lie?"
"You do not know that all else is a lie."
"I know that Transcendence is the miracle that binds the Chezru reli-gion," the Shepherd explained. ?Those who witness the miracle of the fully conscious and knowing child are forever affected. They go to their graves happy, because they know that Yatol is all-powerful and looking over them."
Pagonel noted a bit of a tremor growing in the man's voice as he continued.
"But if the Chezru Chieftain himself, the God-Voice of Yatol, cannot trust in that, then how can we? And without that miracle, then where is the binding force of Yatol? ?
Pagonel had no answers, no words at all to comfort the man. For if their guess was correct, if the Chezru Chieftain now was merely the same spirit, taking the corporeal forms of unborn children down through the centuries, then what argument was to be made?
"When we are done with this, come to the Walk of Clouds, my friend," he did offer. ?There you will learn the truth of who you are. There you will come to understand the fleeting nature of the body and the eternal energy of the soul."
Merwan Ma did smile, but he snorted again, as well. ?We will not be done with this, my friend," he said, and it was the first time he had addressed Pagonel in that manner. ?We will walk into the fortress that is Chom Deiru. We will not walk back out."
Again, the mystic found that he could offer little argument against that logical statement.
"Then we will break through their pitiful lines!" declared Tanalk Grenk with his typically imposing tones.
"To be slowed, stung, and pursued," another remarked, and so it went, all about the campfire where Brynn and her commanders had gathered. The reports from the scouts had come in for the last three days, making it apparent that the Behrenese knew exactly where Brynn's force was, and where they were heading. Now the Behrenese seemed to be forcing a fight, breaking their great army into three groups, the smallest to the east - though reports told of another great force marching down the road from Jacintha - the largest to the south and moving swiftly, trying to keep pace w'ith Brynn, and one to the west, setting defensive positions along the base of the plateau divide and blocking all known passes.
"We can run straight west and use the dragon to get onto the steppes," one of the woman leaders remarked.
"But many would be caught before the dragon could lift them," argued Grenk, who was obviously itching for a major fight. ?The enemy is too close and too determined."
"Most would get away," the woman commander countered. ?The others, myself among them, would turn and fight the Behrenese to the last!"
Many nods accompanied those strong and determined words, but Brynn's was not among them. She had spent another night arguing with Agradele-?s, with the wurm growing more agitated by the day, as eager as was Tanalk Grenk to do battle, but for very different reasons, obviously. Agradeleous had long ago grown tired of this retreating action, and Brynn doubted that he would cooperate in a maneuver designed solely to run away. More likely, they would run to the base of the plateau divide and Agradeleous would force them to turn and fight the pursuing Behrenese, then and there, what-ever the outcome.
"To the steppes, and then where?" the ranger asked them all. ?Even if we dodge them this time, to what gain?"
"Then fight them!" Tanalk Grenk growled. ?Here and now!"
"Or from a defensible position, where we at least will have a chance to inflict tremendous damage upon them," Brynn reasoned.
"I will send scouts at once to find such an area!" the excited man replied.
"I already know of one," said the ranger, and all eyes turned her way and all held quiet, waiting for her to explain.
She looked to the southwest, her expression grim. ?We could fight them from behind the