A Crown Imperilled. Raymond E. Feist

than he understood the Pantathians.

      Pug and his son Magnus had been instrumental in destroying the Pantathian crèches in what they had thought to be the final blow against the lizard race, but apparently there had been more than one enclave of the creatures. As disgusting as it might have been to obliterate every egg and spawn they had encountered, Pug had at least found some solace in the knowledge they were not natural creatures, but twisted parodies of intelligent life focused only on one purpose, and that purpose entailed the annihilation or enslavement of all other races on Midkemia in service of their ‘goddess’.

      Pug surveyed the landscape and sniffed the air. There was a burnt-wood tinge in the heavy damp air. He motioned for his companions to follow him and led them up a small rise to a ridge overlooking a shallow valley. In the distance they could see what looked to be a community, but even at this distance it was clear that it had been burned to char.

      Pug motioned for Sandreena and Amirantha to stand close, and they stepped forwards to flank him, and put their hands on his shoulders.

      In an instant they were standing at the edge of the town. Signs of battle were evident in all directions. ‘Looks like whoever did this wasn’t willing to let anyone survive,’ observed Sandreena.

      ‘They were making a point,’ said Pug.

      ‘Point?’ Amirantha looked at the short sorcerer.

      Pug nodded. ‘I’m not entirely sure of what the point was: vengeance, perhaps. This wouldn’t be the first time an army destroyed every man, woman, and child of an enemy. You don’t slaughter those who farm and raise livestock if you plan on occupying a land and ruling it.’ He looked around. ‘The dead pay no taxes, either.’

      Pug silently turned in a full circle. ‘This valley runs to the south from here.’ He pointed to a nearby stream. ‘If we follow that stream I suspect we’ll find more villages.’

      ‘We walk?’ asked Amirantha.

      ‘Most of the way,’ said Pug and he set off. After a moment, the other two followed.

      By the time they found the fourth village, Pug was perplexed. ‘This was no small raiding party.’ He pointed to several locations around the area where they stood. ‘This was a coordinated attack. I’ve seen enough battlefields over the last hundred years to recognize that.’

      The one unexpected factor had been the corpses left intact enough to recognize: they were Pantathians. They had all been Pantathian villages, and the bodies which had not been literally torn to shreds, or incinerated, were lizard men, women, and children.

      Sandreena said, ‘You’re right. There’s no sign of anyone fleeing.’ She pointed behind them and said, ‘If it was merely a raiding patrol, those fleeing the first onslaught to the north of here would have warned those in the south. By now we’d have seen abandoned wagons along the way, or more dead … people,’ she shrugged as if unable to think of a better word to describe them, ‘with bundles of precious belongings. There’s none of that. This was a coordinated attack, as Pug said. Several elements support a military strike.’ She looked at Pug. Then she faltered, pausing as if she heard a distant, faint sound. ‘Do you feel that?’ She looked at Amirantha.

      He said, ‘I’ve been feeling something for a—’ His eyes widened. ‘Demons!’

      ‘Someone sent a demon army here, Pug,’ said Sandreena.

      Pug sighed as if it was the last thing he wished to hear.

      ‘It’s as if the gods can’t find enough grief to visit on this world,’ said Amirantha. ‘I can no longer control one demon, so they send an entire army …’

      Pug slowly let his gaze wander. ‘It’s the gods who are trying to stop this. That is why we are here.’

      ‘I’m a woman of faith,’ said Sandreena, ‘but these are the moments when that faith is tested.’

      ‘That’s odd,’ said Pug.

      ‘What?’ asked Sandreena.

      Pug pointed to the recently-dead corpse of a Pantathian. He approached it, ignoring the stench of decay, and said, ‘Whenever we encountered the Pantathians, even when we raided their crèches in the mines below the Ratn’gary Mountains, we saw no soldiers.’ The corpse was dressed in a full open-faced helm, a cuirass of steel, a chainmail kilt and heavy leather boots. It still clutched a blood-caked sword in its dead fingers and nearby rested a distorted round shield, rent with talon marks. ‘We saw a few guards, but they were mostly workers, priests, and the female breeders.’ He knelt beside it. ‘There were no soldiers.’ He looked around, seeing others garbed in similar fashion. ‘These Pantathians have hidden an army.’

      ‘It’s smaller than a few days ago,’ quipped Sandreena. ‘The demons did thorough work here.’

      ‘What should we do now?’ asked Amirantha.

      ‘If this Pantathian society remotely resembles ours,’ said Pug, standing, ‘these farms and villages support a city somewhere, or at least a fortress.’

      ‘If there’s a fortress full of snake-men, I doubt we would be welcome,’ observed Amirantha.

      Pug nodded, continuing to look around. ‘Something here feels … right.’

      That statement brought puzzled looks from both his companions and he went on, ‘I have been battling Pantathians since the Great Uprising. They played a key part in the invasion of the Emerald Queen’s army.’ Both Sandreena and Amirantha were aware of the role the demon Jatuk had played in that war, using powerful magic to disguise himself as the Emerald Queen. ‘The Pantathians were duped as much as the Saaur and many of the humans loyal to the Emerald Queen. But there was even more in play than was apparent.’ He looked down at the dead Pantathian again. ‘I know there are others; the Shangri, also called Panath-Tiandn, are strange, nearly mindless creatures that have been twisted by dark powers to manipulate magic energy.’ He pointed to the dead soldier. ‘But it seems that there may be a third type of Pantathian we’ve never encountered before.’ He bent and took a small pouch that had been wedged into the soldier’s sword belt and pulled it free. Inside he found small objects. He tossed one to Amirantha. ‘What do you make of this?’

      It was a tiny spinning top. Finally, the Warlock of the Satumbria said, ‘It’s a toy.’

      ‘A child’s toy. The sort of thing a boy or girl might give to their father to bring him luck. Or as a remembrance of happier times.’

      ‘He had a family?’ asked Amirantha incredulously.

      ‘I tend to be sceptical as well,’ said Pug, ‘but whenever I’ve encountered Pantathians before, the miasma of their magic is palpable, almost a stench if you will.’

      Sandreena said, ‘That’s how demons make me feel. It’s how I know there’s one nearby without having to see it.’

      Amirantha could only nod.

      ‘I sense none of that here. Granted, this is an alien place, but I’ve been to many such and this city and these lands, scarred by war as they are, still do not offer any hint of that black evil that usually surrounds the Pantathians.’

      ‘You want to go find them, don’t you?’ asked the Warlock.

      Pug could only smile. ‘I think we need to. I suspect the three of us are powerful enough to protect ourselves, and at worst I can transport us back to this place.’ He took a moment to grab some rocks and make a rough pattern, all the while studying features and details, etching them into his mind as he had been taught while studying with the Tsurani magicians over a century before.

      ‘Ah, could you perhaps make us invisible, or something like that?’ asked Amirantha, obviously unhappy with Pug’s conclusion. ‘While we traipse around looking for a snake-man army?’

      Sandreena couldn’t help but laugh. Amirantha smiled at the sound; he hadn’t heard it often in the last year.

      Pug smiled.