"Not enough. And to know more I would need theexact moment and location of their births in order to cast more accurate charts. Such details are not recorded for mere orcs."
Mersadion kept to himself his reaction to yet another casually thrown slight.
"The precision of divination." she said, "is only found if your aim is on time."
He looked baffled.
"Don"t bother trying to understand. I can"t say how the present situation will resolve itself. Not with a.s.surance. But in the matter of the Wolverines I see no let-up in blood and burning, death and war. Their path is fraught with peril.
Whatever it is they are trying to achieve, their chances are slim."
"Will this help us to find them, your Majesty?"
"Perhaps." She slammed shut the huge book. Dust motes swirled in the candlelight. "To matters at hand. Has there been any word from the bounty hunters?"
"Not yet, Majesty."
"I suppose that was too much to hope for. I trust you have more positive news concerning the divisions I ordered made ready for to-morrow"s action."
"Three thousand light infantry, fully armed and provisioned, ma"am. They await your word."
"Muster them at dawn. I can at least take pleasure in b.l.o.o.d.ying some Uni noses."
"Yes, Majesty."
"All right. Dismissed."
He bowed and left.
As he walked away from her chamber he began breathing properly again. In his short time serving as the general of Jennesta"s army Mersadion had suffered many insults and humiliations at her hands. He had feared for his life on several occasions. But none of that matched the relief he felt at having survived an exhibition of her reasonableness.
5.
Stryke got the band away from Scratch as fast as possible. He took them north, reasoning that Haskeer would most likely head in the direction of Cairnbarrow.
At mid-morning they slowed their flight, sufficient distance having been put between them and any trolls that might be in pursuit, even though Stryke was of the opinion that they were very unlikely to follow in daylight. Tannar was no help in verifying this. He refused to do anything but curse.
The Wolverines continued at a more measured pace throughout the day. All the while they searched for sign of Haskeer or Coilla, with scouts sent out ahead and from the left and right flanks. The lengthening shadows brought by dusk made their task near impossible, and there was a palpable atmosphere of despondency in the band.
More than an hour of grim silence was broken when Alfray turned in his saddle and said, "This is hopeless, Stryke. All we"re doing is drifting. We need a plan."
"And rest," Jup added. "None of us has slept for two days now."
"We"ve got a plan; we"re looking for Coilla and Haskeer," Stryke told them, his manner surly. "This is no time to rest."
Jup and Alfray exchanged mournful looks.
"It"s not like you to act without a scheme, Captain," Alfray re-sponded. "In a crisis we need a strategy more than ever.
You"ve said that yourself often enough."
"Then there"s him," Jup reminded them, jerking a thumb at Tannar, riding further back in the column with a grunt on either side. He re-mained bound and blindfolded.
Alfray nodded. "Yes, are we going to drag that gargoyle around with us everywhere?"
Stryke glanced back himself and gave a resigned sigh. "All right, we"ll make camp at the first likely place. But we"re not stopping long."
Jup studied the terrain. "Why not right here?"
Stryke checked for himself. "It"ll do." He pointed to a dip in the landscape, where an easily defendable knoll had formed.
"There. I want double sentries posted. Tell the grunts to keep down the prattle. No fires."
Jup relayed the order, minus Stryke"s frosty delivery.
They dismounted. Swearing and cursing, the troll king was taken from his horse and lashed to the trunk of a nearby tree, its greenery turning to Autumn colours, months prematurely. The guards fanned out, but stayed close. Stryke, Alfray and Jup came together, and the remain-der of the band gathered around them. With a wave of Stryke"s handthey sat, many stretching exhausted on the mean sward.
Alfray wasted no time getting to the point. "What the h.e.l.l we going to do, Stryke?"
"Whatcan we do that we"re not doing already? All we have to go on is that Haskeer headed north. Chances are he"s making for Cairnbarrow."
"If he thinks Jennesta"s going to show him any mercy, he really is crazy," Jup said.
"We knowthat," Alfray retorted. "But as to him travelling north, I reckon he"s too demented to be that predictable. We can"t rely on it. He could be riding around in circles out there somewhere."
"When we find him," Stryke said, "ifwe find him, I"m going to be in two minds about killing the swine."
"One mad orc"s put us back to square one," Alfray stated gloomily.
"And Coilla," Stryke went on. "Her not coming back"s starting to look bad."
"You"re still blaming yourself," Jup told him. "You can"t keep-"
"Of course I am!" Stryke flared. "That"s what leadership"s about, taking responsibility, weighing the odds, foreseeing things."
Jup snapped his fingers. "Foreseeing things.Farsight, chief. I haven"t tried it for a while. It might be worth a go now, yes?"
Stryke shrugged. "Why not? We"ve nothing to lose."
"No promises, mind. You know how low the energy was just about everywhere we"ve been."
"Do your best."
The dwarf moved away from the group, found a piece of ground a little more lush than the average and sat cross-legged. He bowed hishead, laid his palms flat on the earth and closed his eyes. The rest of them ignored him.
Stryke and Alfray carried on discussing their options. A few minutes later he was back. They couldn"t tell from his neutral expression if he had anything worth telling them.
"Well?" Stryke asked.
"Mixed. The power"s definitely waning. But I picked up something. I got a very faint energy pattern I reckon is Haskeer"s. Much stronger than that, I felt a female presence, and I figure it"s Coilla. Both north of here, her nearer than him."
"So maybe they aren"t together. That"s something we didn"t know, I suppose."
Jup"s face clouded. "Might not be good, though. Varying distance isn"t the only reason you get one pattern stronger than another. Other things can affect it."
"Such as?"
"Such as high emotions."
"You"re saying that"s why Coilla"s coming through stronger? "Cause her feelings are more fierce?"
"It"s a possibility, chief."
"Good feelings or bad? Can you tell?"
"Could be either. But given what she"s doing, I think it"s less likely to be good, don"t you? If the energy lines weren"t so f.u.c.ked up I might be a bit more certain."
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d humans, bleeding the magic," Alfray muttered.
"This just confirms what we thought," Stryke decided. "It doesn"t change my mind about pushing on northwards." He turned it over for a moment, then addressed the grunts. "We"re all in this together. I"m for the north and seeking our comrades. Anybody got any better ideas? I mean it. I"ll listen."
Apart from some shuffling and blank faces, there was no response.
"All right," he said, "I"ll take that as a yes vote. We"ll rest a short while before moving. From now on our only priority is finding our comrades, and the stars."
"Then all you"11 find is your deaths!"
They all looked to Tannar, who had been more or less forgotten while they talked.
"That sounds like wishful thinking," Jup answered.
"It is a prophecy," the troll king a.s.sured him.
"Based on what?" Alfray wanted to know.
"My knowledge of the objects you call stars, which is obviously greater than yours."
Stryke went to the tree and crouched beside him. Evening was set-ting in, so he took off the blindfold. Tannar blinked and scowled.
"Let"s hear it," Stryke said.
"Not until I am untied," the troll demanded with regal arrogance. "My limbs ache. I"m not used to being treated this way."
"I"ll bet you"re not. But maybe we can manage it."
"Have a care, Stryke," Alfray cautioned.
"If this warband can"t deal with one unarmed tunnel dweller we"re in the wrong business." He drew a knife to cut Tannar"s bonds, then stayed his hand. "Anybody know what kind of magic trolls have?"
Jup did. "It"s two-fold, chief. One part"s to do with night vision. Darker it gets, better they see. The other"s a sharpened ability to forage food. Rats, fungus, whatever it is they eat. Can"t think either would be a threat. Unless he tries snuffling us to death."
A ripple of laughter went through the band.
"That"s what I thought," Stryke said. He slashed the rope.
Tannar ma.s.saged his furry wrists and glared at his captors. "I"m parched. Give me water."
"Demands, demands," Jup mocked, tossing over a canteen.The troll king downed half the contents, and would have drained it all if Stryke hadn"t s.n.a.t.c.hed the bottle away.
Tannar coughed, dribbling water.
"So what is it you know?" Stryke asked.
"My race has stories and legends concerning these objects. It seems your kind does not. Perhaps because orcs are rare among the elder races in having no magic. I do not know."
"What do the legends say?"
"That these . . . stars are very old, and may have been created at the same time Maras-Dantia itself was fashioned from chaos by the G.o.ds."
"Is there proof for this?" Alfray wondered.
"Yours is such a down-to-earth race. How could there beproof! It is a matter of faith."
"Go on," Stryke prompted. "What else?"
"Members of many elder races have died and killed for the power the stars represent, as you are now. All that was long ago. Of late, they have disappeared from the ken of most Maras-Dantians. But they remain a part of this land"s secret history, as tales handed down within sects and hidden orders."
"So it"s all yarns and moonfluff."
"You must think it more than that or you wouldn"t risk so much to find them."
"We seek them because they"re important to others with sway over us. That makes them useful in our situation."
"They are so much more than bargaining counters. To see them in so lowly a way is to play with fire when blind."
"We don"t know anything about the stars" power, beyond the hold it has over the beliefs of others."
"From what I"ve heard you say, they"ve changed your lives," Tannar replied. "Isn"t that power?"
"You mentioned a secret history," Alfray broke in. "What did you mean by that?"
"Down through the ages these things you call stars are supposed to have influenced many great Maras-Dantians.