Page 84 (1/1)

‘It’ll cost you a kiss-kiss, Longbow,’ she said with a sly little sathered near the back side of Gunda’s black basalt wall late that afternoon as the sun neared the ridge-line to the west Narasan and most of his officers were there, and Rabbit and Torl sort of represented Sorgan

‘Just to make sure that we all knohat this is all about, why don’t you tell us what you saw near that waterfall, Longbow?’

‘There’s not really too bow replied ‘The church ar to co to work for them, since we had archers in place to shower arrows on theathered just below the falls, and they’re building a rabow,’ Rabbit declared ‘Your bow if they do that’

Longbow shook his head ‘They’re roofing it over, little friend From what I was able to see, the roofs not very substantial, but it’s good enough to hide the arrows at’ He paused, squinting off toward the rosy sunset ‘Their rah,’ he added ‘I suppose we could put a sizeable number of archers in place to kill them as they cah’

‘You’re on your own this tie and ull, so I won’t be able to help you veryto have a very faold on board the Seagull turned Kajak’s head off back in the harbor at Kweta, and noe’ve got several Trogite ar the saht want to consider, Veltan,’ Zelana said to her brother ‘When you ca, you picked up a few hints in Weros that the Vlagh had servants in the Land of Maag, and they’d been ta pirates is one thing, dear sister,’ Veltan replied dubiously, ‘but we’re talking about five Trogite armies and half of the priesthood of the As more than a little bit’

‘It’s not i us - even ere a long way from the Land of Dhrall - and that old has on the outlanders In a very real sense, we’ve been using gold as bait I caught Sorgan, and you caught Narasan Wouldn’t you say that the Vlagh ood our bait really is? If it’s had servants out there waving gold at those Amarite priests - and all those church ared to catchup froreed and totally unaware of just exactly ill happen to theht that be?’ Gunda asked her with a puzzled look on his face

Longbow stepped in at that point ‘After they’ve rushed up here and destroyed you and all of our other Trogite friends, the Vlagh won’t really need them any more,’ he explained ‘If that’s the case, it’s quite possible that the servants of the Vlagh will invite their newfound friends to dinner, where the friends will be the main course’

‘That’s terrible!’ Gunda exclaimed in horror

‘Oh, I don’t know, Gunda,’ Andar said ‘When you’ve got two enemies and one of them eats the other one, it solves quite a few probleht, then,’ Narasan said in a crisp tone, ‘weto have to deal with it If anybody has any ideas, now’s the time to let the rest of us know about theround,’ Danalover their raht protect theh to stay in place if we start dropping boulders on it’

‘Particularly e’re dropping them from two hundred feet up,’ Andar added in his deep voice ‘That raot a few holes in it - or it will have after we’ve dropped some five-ton boulders on it’ He frowned ‘They should have realized that, shouldn’t they? The coht, but even an idiot would be able to see that, wouldn’t he?’

‘Their brains have gone to sleep,’ Sorgan’s cousin Torl said bluntly ‘That’s what I was telling you before Just as soon as one of the farold up here, the soldiers started to run in this direction as if their very lives depended on it They aren’t thinking any more, so they can’t see any holes in a plan that so with theht try, little brother,’ Zelana suggested to Veltan

‘I have to adreed, ‘but as closely as we’ve been able to determine, there are five church armies down there That’s a half-million men, Zelana! Some of those men should be at least partially awake, wouldn’t you say?’

Zelana shook her head ‘The Vlagh’s accustoe nu as independent thought aht a those church soldiers has been reduced to that of insects, the only thing that concerns theold before they do’

‘You could be right, dear sister,’ Veltan agreed gluet up past the waterfall before they give us much trouble,’ Narasan said firmly as he adjusted his iron breastplate Then he looked at Padan ‘Why don’t you gather up a few thousand o on down to the south end of this basin, old friend? Let’s find out how much church soldiers enjoy a sudden downpour of five-ton boulders’