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Soh, the Dreamers had run off on their own, and that irritated Ara to no end

Then she res Eleria’s dream in the harbor of Kweta had beenthan an announceiven Zelana’s archer all that he’d needed tonamed Kajak Could it possibly be that Ashad’s dream of a second invasion of Veltan’s Do? If that were the case, the second invasion ht now, Ara needed much more information about the people of the land to the south Once she understood theht very well be able to stop that second invasion before it ever took place

It was on a beautiful o and Ara that the hired ar that very day, and that Yaltar was still very disturbed by the disastrous results of his drea mountains Ara was quite sure she’d be able to ease the little boy’s sense of guilt, so she decided to go on down to the beach with Veltan and her mate

Even before the outlander ships reached the shore, Ara felt suddenly aith the juhts of the various men ere on board those ships Curiosity was forehts, of course The outlanders had been totally unaware of the existence of the Land of Dhrall before the previous winter, so it was only natural for them to be curious There was also a certain amount of apprehension The creatures of the Wasteland had been so altered by the Vlagh that they were unlike anything else in all the world, and that disturbed the outlanders to no sbow kept cropping up With only a few exceptions, the outlanders had been awed by that icy man Ara tentatively reached out and touched the mind of the archer, and she found that he was not, as many on the ships believed, some kind of inhuman monster He was coldly practical when a situation required that of him, but he did have normal emotions

Then she very briefly brushed across an awareness so foul that she shuddered back in horror and disgust One of the soldiers in the Trogite army was the most corruptgreed So far as that particular soldier was concerned, the ith the servants of the Vlagh was of no particular significance What he really wanted was every speck of gold in the entirety of the Land of Dhrall Then several things caether all at once, and Ara realized that she’d just found the source of the second part of the drea?’

‘What was that again, Ara?’ O, dear heart,’ she replied ‘Just thinking out loud is all’

Ara braced herself and reached out to touch the filthyeven rereed, cruelty, cowardice, and, perhaps ht be the answer to the whole problem,’ Ara mused ‘If this beast isn’t around any more, Ashad’s second invasion won’t happen at all’

A nu possibilities cah to push hio would respond appropriately She’d be obliged to take things down to the most primitive level, of course, and that troubled her more than a little The end result, however, would fully justify what she’d have to do

After a brief discussion on the beach, Veltan took a goodly number of the outlanders and a couple of the hunters from Zelana’s Domain to his house to show them a room where he’d set up a miniaturized duplicate of the terrain in the vicinity of the Falls of Vash Ara began to prepare dinner for Veltan’s guests while Zelana, Eleria, and Yaltar watched Ara was not really concentrating on the cooking however Pushing her sense of revulsion aside, she turned her senses backward in tie tomale, and, as was the case in all warm-blooded creatures, that involved a specific scent The scent would unleash Jalkan’s lust o into raw violence, and that would immediately eliminate Ashad’s second invasion

When Ara went to Veltan’s map-room to tell thethat most primitive of scents, and Jalkan, as she’d anticipated, responded with a few off-color reo o responded to those comments quite appropriately, but unfortunately didn’t take it quite far enough At the last es of his prio did not kill their enee to scream at that point She’d just discovered that raw instincts are almost impossible to control, and in a situation where the desired result did not coite friend, Commander Narasan, had been stunned by Jalkan’s remarks, and Ara hoped that he’d take the appropriate steps, but for some reason he did not reach for his sword

What was the iven everybody in that round room all the excuse they’d ever need to exterminate the filthy Jalkan, but they’d all just passed it up Why wouldn’t anybody do what he was supposed to do?

Narasan ordered the Trogite Padan to put Jalkan in chains and i just off the beach That was so, Ara conceded, but for some reason, nobody seemed to realize that there’d been a much simpler answer

It took Ara the rest of the day and ht to clear away the last of her pri day Instincts so else would work, but they were absolutely exhausting -particularly when they didn’t achieve the desired goal

It came as no real surprise a week or so later that word of Jalkan’s escape reached the house of Veltan It seemed to Ara that every time she turned around, Ashad’s silly dream was ahead of her No matter what she tried to do to prevent the second invasion, the dreain to understand, that second invasion was absolutely necessary ‘I give up,’ she said, throwing her hands in the air