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On un, the leaders of the Ardhan arh Bryon had the standing invitation issued to all the ducal heirs, he seldo after his visit to Crystal&039;s tent, he surprised everyone by not only appearing, but by having ed to wash, shave, and find a clean set of clothes
He ant bow to the queen, saluted first Mikhail, then his father and the other dukes, grabbed a plate and a , and found a seat beside Crystal If he wanted to speak to her about the night before, however, he was to be disappointed After greeting him with a somewhat absent smile, her mind, to all outward appearances, holly on the war
"I&039;m afraid it&039;s true, Majesty, " the Duke of Lorn said sorrowfully as conversation resuht with confirmation Halda has fallen "
Tayer&039;s eyes filled with tears and, almost involuntarily, she shook her head slowly from side to side Mikhail appeared to be carved froruffly Hanna, Mikhail&039;s only sister was Halda&039;s queen
Lorn&039;s daughter, Kly, a small, muscular brunette, spoke up "The news I have is three days old, dating from when the pass was taken by the Empire Then, |
the Royal Family was safe in their principal seat, but by now the castledependent on their mountain barriers, Halda has had almost no defenses "
A sound, half moan, half sob, welled up from Tayer&039;s throat
"Do not despair, Majesty " Kly&039;sthan sympathy would have been "I believe the Royal Fa in the mountains "
"Why?" Mikhail did not yet let himself hope Better Hanna be dead than a captive of Kraydak or hiser and I saw the escape plans Halda&039;s Guard Captain long feared this day would coe, Halda&039;s Guard Captain is a wer "
"Wer!" More than one h it left a bad taste in the mouth The members of the race the wizards had developed were few in number, seldorowled the Duke of Cei, his fat face twisted with distaste
"More likely to side with Kraydak then against him!"
"No " Kly&039;s voice was quiet and assured "The wer hate the wizards with an intensity hard to iine The names of the wizards are curses to them and Kraydak&039;s is the e of expression, added "They&039;ve still not decided about you "
Crystal inclined her head What the wizards had done to create the as terrible beyond belief The wers had a right to eternal hatred of their creators and, although it had happened thousands of years before her birth, she was a wizard
"If it&039;s not coe, " said Lorn, "how did you happen to find out that this aze
He blushed slightly and mumbled, "Never mind "
"Milord " Kly addressed Mikhail directly "There isn&039;t a person alive that knows the es that go on for enerations I believe that, for now, the Royal Family of Halda is safe "
Mikhail held her eyes for ahope in her certainty, nodded
"Now, if you&039;ll excusebegins " As she left, she exchanged grins with Bryon She had been Messenger to Belkar as well
The council broke up soon after her departure It was getting light and the battle lines were fore Plateau
Crystal stood, as she had stood since the first day the ar with an unobstructed view of the battlefield Her hair whipped about in the wind and she felt, with growing uneasiness, the power building in the east The air hung heavy with it and the sky was growing a greenish black She waited nervously, gathering her oer to counter what had to be awhy she had not already been destroyed
Although she had no way of knowing it, Kraydak wondered the exact sa
On each day of the battle he had sent a little ed to survive Once or twice, as she turned his attack in a totally unexpected way, he&039;d felt that, maybe, there was more to this wizard-child than he suspected and, perhaps, it would be a to discover what And then he&039;d remember the prophecy-out of Ardhan would come the last of the wizards, the last creature capable of defeating hiain to destroy her
On a hillock, not far frohter waited, Mikhail and his staff sat surveying the scene Messengers had become couriers and already the traffie was heavy between the coht himself, but his skills as a tactician were needed reat black sword His eyes went to where the Elite were grouped to take the brunt of the day&039;s charge and he wished with all his heart that he was a them
The armies joined and Crystal braced herself for the release of Kraydak&039;s power When it came, it was typical of his attacks but an to rain No ordinary rain, this was cold, and vicious, and selective It rained only on the Ardhan arot wet and cold, only their footing becarappled in close hand to hand combat, Kraydak&039;s army stayed dry and sure-footed
Crystal couldn&039;t tell if Kraydak had wrapped each of his men in a force shield and then caused it to rain or if he was directing the rain itself She faced a ht idea of how to begin unraveling it
As the day progressed, and the battle raged, so too did the battle between the wizards Crystal began to understand what Kraydak had done and was having so it The rain came in scattered bursts nohole sections of the Plateau would be dry, while in others rain fell on Ardhan and Melacian alike In places where she could not stop the rain, Crystal tried to turn Kraydak&039;s power against him and so an Ardhan soldier, cold, wet, and ainst a Melacian rapped in blistering he?t and dehydrating rapidly The odds began to even out and by h the conditions were both uncomfortable and unusual, neither side could say they had an advantage through ical means The wizards now held each other in a precarious balance
"Oh, well done " Kraydak could not have been more pleased had he trained the child hi of the day&039;s probleht before And although it would not happen again, he treasured the experience; he didn&039;t remember the last time he had actually been hurt Of course, he couldn&039;t let her think she was free to cause hiet aith it He checked the interweavings of their power and smiled
"Let&039;s see how you deal with this then, little one "
The Melacian aran to fall back and a cheer went up from the Ardhan side, a cheer that turned to cries of horror as the dead shaathered each night froether and reanih the mud, their lips were pulled back frorin, and they still bore the wounds that had sent thereat hole in his chest through which could be seen a gray and rotting heart There staggered one whose head lolled drunkenly to the side, for the muscles needed to support it had been ripped away Others walked on legs or swung arms not their own and rude stitches shohere liinals had been attached Some carried swords, some spears, but they all carried terror as an added weapon
The dead were not skilled fighters, but they didn&039;t need to be The saave theave the could match They were tireless and al blows had no effect, for they were already dead, and the weary men of the Ardhan army found it necessary to chop these new opponents into pieces to stop theht on
Had it been possible to turn and run-to flee screa stench of rot; to hide where a clammy hand could not close round your throat and continue to squeeze even after it was no longer attached to an arm-there would have been few Ardhan soldiers left on the field But there was nowhere to go, so they choked back their fear and fought on
Kraydak&039;s living soldiers took strength fro comrades, and threw themselves back into the fray
When Crystal saw the dead advance, she bit back a screahtmares and she had to deal with her own terror before she could deal with the feature, each hideous parody of humanity, struck a blow at the barrier of her power
"Can&039;t you do anything?" she called to a younghere and there beside those who had fallen
"What they do with the bodies is none ofconstantly as he spoke, and then he continued on his way unseen
Crystal clutched her courage tightly and reached out to sain The delicate balance of power slipped and disaster threatened Her heart in her throat, Crystal grabbed back control and realized that Kraydak had effectively tied her hands If she destroyed the living dead, she lost control of the eleht the crippling cold and wet as well as their physical enemies, the Mela-cians would easily win But if she let the walking evil be as she watched, one of Belkar&039;s captains went doith a spear slaed its guts on the ground behind it
Froround his teeth in rage He couldn&039;t think of a thing that would do any good Maneuvering was next to iht one on one and far too ht those they had defeated once already
"Milord, " gasped a courier, riding up on a lathered and blood-flecked horse,
"they&039;re breaking through to the south Aliston is falling back The duke asks you send him reinforcements "
Mikhail scanned the Plateau An ar the Ardhans to fight on two fronts, the east and the south Up against the living dead, the southern front was falling back Much farther and the Melacians would be behind the Ardhan lines