Crystal Gorge. David Eddings

proved that it wasn’t gold, Ekial could not take his eyes off what appeared to be the greatest deposit of the precious metal in the entire world.

      ‘Don’t keep looking at it, Ekial,’ Keselo advised. ‘It might just scramble your brains if you look too long.’

      ‘But it’s so pretty.’

      ‘I think that was the whole idea, but it’s out there for the church soldiers to look at – not you or me. We know that it’s almost worthless, but they don’t. I think that was the whole idea. The church of Amar is filled to the brim with greed, and that imitation gold out there raises that greed to the boiling point. As far as we’ve been able to determine, the church soldiers – and the priests – aren’t even thinking coherently any more, and that seems to have been the idea. The church people will charge down that slope right into the hands – or whatever – of the bug-people. The men will kill the bugs, and the bugs will kill the men. When it’s all over, there won’t be any enemies of either kind left alive. It’s nothing but an elaborate trap, and you don’t want to be one of those caught in it.’

      ‘You speak very well, Keselo,’ Ekial conceded. ‘Maybe I should go look at the mountains for a change.’

      ‘I would, if I were you.’

      Ekial found the discussions of ‘the unknown friend’ more than a little confusing. It had seemed from the very beginning of this war in the southern part of the Land of Dhrall that Dahlaine and his family had been more or less in control of things, but it appeared that someone else had stepped in without any kind of warning, and this someone else could do things that were far beyond the capability of Dahlaine and the others. Dahlaine’s older sister seemed to take that as something in the nature of a personal insult, and Ekial found that to be a matter of great concern. He’d caught a few hints that Dahlaine and the others were nearing the end of what were called ‘cycles,’ and they were no longer completely aware of what was happening.

      He began to have some second thoughts about having anything to do with this ongoing war in the Land of Dhrall. The pay promised to be very good, but still –

      The Maags and Trogites, with the help of Longbow and the archers, seemed to have things pretty much under control. The bug-people weren’t making much headway in their charges up the slope to the north of Gunda’s wall, and the soldiers of the Trogite church were rushing up from the south with their minds shut down because of that ‘sea of gold’. The ‘unknown friend’s’ command to stand aside made good sense to Ekial, but it seemed to stir up even more bickering and wild speculation among the leaders of the Land of Dhrall.

      Then when they were in the vicinity of the geyser that was the source of the Falls of Vash there came a deep rumble from far below the surface of the earth, and Dahlaine appeared out of nowhere in a blinding flash of light and told them to get clear of the area near the spouting geyser.

      The earth began to shudder violently under their feet as they ran off toward the comparative safety of the east rim of the grassy basin, and that convinced Ekial that he wanted no part of these wars in the Land of Dhrall. He was more than willing to take on people in any war in any part of the world, but when the world itself began to rumble and shudder, it was time to go home.

      ‘These geysers are not uncommon, I’ve been told,’ Keselo advised them all as they stood on top of the eastern-most tower of Gunda’s wall staring in awe at the thundering spout of water blasting out over the north slope. ‘They’re the result of vast pockets of water far below the surface of the earth – water that’s under extreme pressure. When there’s an earthquake in the region, the solid rock that’s holding all that water in place will crack, and the water will suddenly come blasting up from far down below.’

      ‘The next question is how long it’s going to take for that underground pond to run dry,’ Sorgan Hook-Beak said.

      ‘I wouldn’t hold my breath, Captain,’ Keselo replied. ‘I’ve heard that there’s a geyser off to the south of the empire that’s been spouting up into the air for several hundred years now. There’s no way that we could verify this, since those bodies of water are several miles below the surface, but some people who’ve studied them tell us that there are vast seas down there waiting for the chance to come up to the surface.’

      ‘Well, good for them,’ Padan said with a broad grin. ‘If that part of the Wasteland is lower than the rest of it, and the water’s going to keep spouting out the way it’s doing right now, there’ll be a lake down there by the end of the week, and by this time next year, the lake will have become an inland sea.’

      ‘Well, gentlemen,’ Dahlaine said then, ‘I guess that pretty much takes care of everything up here. I suppose we might as well pack up and go on back down the hill.’

      There was a certain amount of celebration when they returned to the house of Veltan. They had won yet another war against the bug-people, but it seemed to Ekial that the celebrators all tended to gloss over the fact that ‘unknown friend’ had stepped around them and won the war all by herself.

      There were some extended discussions about which part of the Land of Dhrall would be attacked by the bug-people next, but Ekial found the bickering between Dahlaine and his sister rather tiresome and more than a little silly – an opinion he was almost positive was shared by Zelana and Veltan.

      Ekial began to avoid the map-room and frequently left Veltan’s house to look over the farmland nearby. It was late summer now, and the farmers had begun to harvest their crops. The concepts of plowing and planting were alien to Ekial, but he could understand the value of having enough food to get through the coming winter. Beef was pleasant to eat, but after a few months of a steady diet of nothing but beef, even a turnip might be a welcome change.

      As he wandered through the nearby farms, he began to have some second thoughts about his decision to tell Dahlaine that he wanted no part of any war here in the Land of Dhrall. The earthquakes up in the basin had occurred for a specific purpose and hadn’t really threatened him. The gold Dahlaine had offered would greatly enrich the horsemen of the meadowland, and Ekial was fairly certain that if things began to get out of hand in the north, their ‘unknown friend’ would almost certainly step in and straighten them out. He might not understand just how she’d accomplish this, but she’d be there if he really needed her help. That more or less convinced him that it would be foolish to throw away what promised to be an easy war for good pay.

      There was a certain problem, though, and he went back to the house of Veltan to discuss that problem with Dahlaine. He went directly to the map-room where Sorgan and Narasan were talking with each other.

      ‘I don’t want to intrude here,’ he said to them, ‘but how are we going to get my people – and their horses – up to Lord Dahlaine’s territory? Horses can run fast, but probably not quite fast enough to gallop across the top of the sea.’

      Narasan squinted up at the ceiling of the map-room, and told Ekial that they could hire ships from Castano to transport the men and horses to Dahlaine’s Domain.

      ‘As long as we can get there before the war breaks out, everything should be all right,’ Ekial replied.

      Then Veltan advised Narasan that he’d go along, since it would probably take quite a bit of gold to hire that many ships.

      ‘I take it that you’ve changed your mind, Ekial,’ Dahlaine said then. ‘You were looking quite doubtful when things started to get noisy up near the Falls of Vash.’

      ‘I’ve had time to think it over a bit,’ Ekial replied. ‘Things turned out quite well up there, and the pay you offered is very attractive. You people have already won two wars here in the Land of Dhrall, so there’s no real reason to think that you’ll lose the next one. Easy wars for good pay always get my attention.’ Then he looked at the balding Trogite Gunda. ‘When did you want to leave?’ he asked.

      ‘How does first thing tomorrow morning sound to you?’ Gunda asked.

      ‘About right,’ Ekial replied. ‘But