The Stricken Field Read Free Page A

to remember all the crazy ideas that had been tossed around on the ferryboat. "They will outlaw votarism, Sire. No sorcerer, even a warden, will be allowed to bind another to his will. They hope to establish sorcery as a force for good in the world . . ."
    Shandie laughed, rather shrilly. "Well, I wish them luck! The attempt should keep them out of any real mischief, and we shall catch them soon enough. I feel sorry for my poor cousin. When we catch him, he will be restored to his wits and given full pardon. The Four will meet their just deserts. And that faun . . ." He stared again at the blue chair. He did not complete the thought, but Umpily shivered.
    "It is good to have you back in our councils, old friend," the imperor said. "I have convinced you? No qualms now?"
    "None, Sire! None at all." Oh, what a fool he had been to trust a dwarf and a faun!
    "That's good. And should you, in your dallying around the court, hear of any others voicing doubts, or criticism ... of course you will inform us at once." Again Shandie put an arm around Umpily, a most unusual gesture for him. The audience was over, they were heading for the door. "You will not speak of the Almighty One." That sounded like a statement of fact. "And your old quarters at Oak House are still as they were. We must find somewhere for you in the palace itself-and I don't mean a dungeon! Now I shall let you go. If I know you, a small repast will be uppermost in your thoughts after that unfortunate misunderstanding."
    With Shandie's familiar quiet chuckle, the imperor bade his old friend farewell.
2
    Far to the north, near the eastern end of the Pondague Range, a galaxy of twinkling campfires nestled within the Kribur Valley. The winter dark was raucous with guttural male voices; the crackle of firewood blended with horses' whinnies and the scream of dying captives.
    The goblin horde under Death Bird had met up with the dwarvish army led by General Karax. Now the leaders were planning a combined advance southward, into the heart of the Impire. Four legions had been slaughtered in the last two weeks and there were no more in the vicinity. The road to Hub was unguarded; the capital lay naked and vulnerable as it had not been in centuries.
    The dwarvish end of the combined camp was an untidy city of tents, but goblins would sleep under the sky, spurning this puny southern cold. The junction between the territories was an uneasy border, for the two races had never worked together before and their ways were different. Goblins sneered at the mailed dwarves and wondered aloud how fast those little legs could run. Dwarvish nerves were strained by the noise of the goblins' barbarous amusement. The alliance was fragile.
    Near the frontier dividing the two forces, but within one of the dwarves' tents, Queen Inosolan of Krasnegar was attending to her toilet with the aid of a bucket of icy water. As she had lived in the same clothes for a week and had no clean garments to replace them, she had little hope of doing much about her disgusting condition. She could do nothing about her crushing exhaustion, either. She ached as she had never ached in her life. At fourteen, Gath and Kadie were withstanding the rigors of fatigue better than their mother, but all three were close to the breaking point.
    The tent was shabby and well patched, typically dwarvish. It smelled bad, but it was roomy enough. The floor was muddy grass, and there was no bedding. At least it was shelter-there would be snow tonight, likely-and there was even a dreary little lantern, which qualified as a luxury by dwarvish standards.
    "Mom!" Kadie squealed, peering at something she held pinched between her finger and thumb. "What's this?"
    "If it's what I think it is, darling, it's a louse."
    Kadie screamed and hurled the offending parasite from her.
    Then she burst into tears.
    Stripped to the waist, her twin brother Gath shivered over another bucket. He looked around briefly, before remembering that he was supposed