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Veltan led them to what he referred to as his ‘map-room’, and Narasan immediately saw that it was a combination of the ‘war-room’ in the army compound back in Kaldacin and Red-Beard’s sculptured map in Zelana’s cave in Lattash The addition of the balcony surrounding the ave thereater detail than Narasan had ever previously encountered The terrain in the vicinity of the waterfall was inti, but Narasan ieyser that was the source of that waterfall, they’d be able to hold off their enemy almost indefinitely with only , of course, would be to get there first

Then the stunningly beautiful wife of the farh the door to advise them that their supper was ready, and Veltan, with a note of pride in his voice, told them that the beautiful lady was quite probably the best cook in the world

Then the scrawny halfwit Jalkan made some obscene remarks that nearly sent Narasan into total collapse Fortunately, the lady’s solidly-built husband took steps before Veltan could raise his hand and obliterate Narasan’s entire arone just a bit further, however Oo did have that spear in his other hand, and he’d just wasted a wonderful opportunity to rid Narasan’s ar, spitting blood, and jerking at the hilt of his sheathed dagger, but Keselo stopped the idiot dead in his tracks with a highly appropriate threat to kill hiht there on the spot

Narasan fervently hoped that Jalkan would o even further

Unfortunately, Jalkan - as usual - failed

As Narasan regained control of his te incident had been exactly what he’d been hoping for

Jalkan was spluttering and screa about his rank as an officer in Narasan’s army, but Narasan abruptly - and publicly - revoked that commission and ordered Padan to chain the fool and take him back to the beach Then, in what he felt to be an extreesture, he offered the lady’s husband the opportunity to deal with Jalkan personally - with spear, if he wished

Oo seemed to be tempted, but he rather reluctantly declined

Narasan was terribly disappointed, but in good time he’d come up with an appropriate punishht aran spent much of their time in the map-room for the next few days The river that ran down to the sea from the foot of the waterfall was quite some distance to the north of Veltan’s house, so it was fairly obvious that sailing up to the river mouth would be the best course of action, since, even as had been the case in the previous war, there was only one possible invasion route their eneet people up there in a hurry, Narasan,’ Sorgan said quite fir to have an enorreed

‘Old?’ Sorgan protested

‘Sorry Just a figure of speech’ Narasan frowned ‘I think we’d better have a chat with Veltan’s friend - the felloho specializes in knocking out the teeth of those who insult his wife’

‘You should have killed that fool right there on the spot, Narasan’

‘And get blood all over this ood tiht now I’ve noticed that Rabbit and Keselo seeave Jalkan a lesson in good ht just be the sa up with new ideas You did know that your o and the other farmers how to form up to make their spears more effective, didn’t you?’

Narasan nodded ‘He toldtheh time to polish the the upcoreed

‘Don’t feel alone Right now, though, we’re going to need a guide to show our advance force how to get past that waterfall without getting washed back out to sea They need to spend their ti’

The two strangers Veltan led into thepair Prince Ekial was fairly tall, and his face had obviously sustained some fairly serious wounds at soerous warrior queen called Trenicia was not the sort of person anyone with good sense would offend The warrior queen was not quite as tall as Sorgan, but she came close There were a few ancient ions of the Eiven them much credence, but Trenicia washed his doubts away just by her presence Veltan advised Narasan and Sorgan that Prince Ekial and Queen Trenicia were here as ‘observers’, largely because at so the creatures of the Wasteland in different regions in the Land of Dhrall

At supper that evening when they were all feasting on the wonderful an raised the issue of bringing Longbow’s archers to join the ith the creatures of the Wasteland, but Longbow dis by ship al distances in the an that the archers could come across country in about half the ti Narasan and Sorgan were in the ion around the waterfall ‘I don’t see any possible way for us to get up there, Narasan,’ Sorgan ad down froreed, ‘and that cliff doesn’t seem to have any breaks anywhere near the falls I suppose we could build a ramp, but that’d probably take us h the doorway and joined thean said ‘Are you at all faion around this blasted waterfall?’