The Serpentwar Saga. Raymond E. Feist

to home?’

      Hatonis shrugged, and grinned, looking youthful despite his grey hair. ‘One fight is pretty much the same as another, and if we don’t fight the snakes at Maharta we’re certainly going to have to fight them at our own door.’

      Calis nodded. ‘Let’s go.’

      Erik saw the others get into line, and he slapped Roo on the shoulder as his boyhood friend walked past. Roo gave him a crooked smile that showed there was nothing to smile about, and Erik nodded in agreement. Erik waited until the last man had passed, then picked up the rear guard position. Suddenly he realized he had taken Foster’s place in line without being told. He looked ahead to see if de Loungville was signaling or if another was coming to take his place, but when no word came down to give up the corporal’s place, he continued along, returning his mind to the business at hand: staying alive.

      Providence smiled upon them, as they found a southern trail. It looked to be a miners’ trail, for it was wider than any goat herder. would have needed, and at several places along the way areas of bare rock proclaimed those workers who had hacked their way through the soil and stone to make it easy to get carts up and down the road.

      For Calis’s company it was as if at last they were running into some good luck. The men moved along swiftly, at a trot for a time, then a walk, the pace designed to cover the maximum distance by the end of each day.

      The wounded were able to keep up, though the man with the injured leg was almost unconscious with pain and loss of blood by the end of the day. Nakor dressed his wound and told Calis that with him and Sho Pi working on it all night, the man would be slightly better each day.

      They found water and were clearly able to increase their speed, as they moved quickly to a rising crest. A rumbling warned them as they climbed the rise; then as they topped the crest, in the distance they saw the falls.

      De Loungville swore. They faced a gorge cut through the mountains; below them by a hundred feet a great fall of water cascaded into a small lake another two hundred feet below that. From there the river meandered southeast toward the ocean.

      Ancient rocks marked where once a rope-and-wood suspension bridge had crossed the gap. Another pair of rock anchors rose up on the opposite side of the gorge.

      ‘The Satpura River,’ said Praji. ‘Now I know exactly where we are.’

      ‘Where are we?’ asked Calis.

      ‘Dead east across the Plain of Djams lies Maharta,’ said Praji. Turning to Calis he said, ‘I don’t know what sort of magic was in that tunnel, but we’re one hell of a lot farther away from where we entered the grasslands than I thought.’

      ‘What do you mean?’ said de Loungville. ‘We were fifty, sixty miles away from where we entered when we got to that big grotto.’

      ‘More like three hundred,’ answered Vaja. ‘It would take you a month on a good horse to get back to that mound out in the grass,’ he observed, ‘if you could get past the Gilani.’

      Nakor said, ‘It was a very good trick, then, for I felt nothing of it.’ He smiled as if this was a major feat. Then he grinned. ‘Bet it was as soon as we moved from the barrow. Bet you there is no tunnel there. It must be an illusion.’ He shook his head. ‘Now I really want to go back and look.’

      Calis said, ‘Some other time. How far to Maharta?’

      Praji shrugged. ‘By caravan from Palamds to Port Grief, a month. No one goes from there to Maharta overland – they take a ship. But there is that old coast road, if you don’t mind the bandits and other low-lifes that haunt it.’

      ‘Where’s our best course?’ asked Calis.

      Praji rubbed his chin a moment. ‘I think we send Sho Pi and Jadow that way,’ he said, pointing down the slope near the gorge, ‘to see if there’s a trail down nearby. If so, we take it. If we follow the river, we should be less than a week from Palamds. We can find a caravan or buy horses, and then we ride to Port Grief. From there a ship, and we’re on our way to wherever you need to go.’

      ‘I need to get back to Krondor,’ said Calis, and several of the men nearby cheered when they heard that.

      Nakor said, ‘No, first we must go to Maharta, then to Krondor.’

      ‘Why?’ asked Calis.

      ‘We haven’t stopped to ask why the Emerald Queen is taking the river cities.’

      Vaja said, ‘Good question.’

      ‘Hatonis, Praji, you have any ideas?’ asked Calis.

      Hatonis said, ‘Conquest for its own purposes is not unknown in this land – for booty, to enlarge one’s domain, for honor – but this simple taking of everything …’ He shrugged.

      Praji said, ‘If there was something I wanted in Maharta, and I couldn’t trust to have those other cities at my back …’

      Erik said, ‘Maybe it has to do with getting every sword under one banner?’

      Calis looked at him for a long minute, then nodded. ‘They plan on bringing the biggest army in history against the Kingdom.’

      Then Roo said, ‘How are they planning on getting there?’

      Nakor slowly grinned as Calis said, ‘What!’

      Roo looked embarrassed as he repeated, ‘How are they planning on getting there? You needed two ships to get us here, with stores and all. They’ve got, what? A hundred thousand, two hundred thousand soldiers? And a lot of horses and equipment. Where are they going to get the ships?’

      Hatonis said, ‘The shipbuilders at Maharta are the finest in Novindus. Only the shipwrights in the Pa’j-kamaka Islands are their equal. Our clan has long purchased our ships in Maharta. It is the only shipyard that could possibly produce enough transports in a short time, perhaps in two years or so.’

      Calis said, ‘Then we must make a stop there.’

      Nakor said, ‘Yes. We must burn the shipyards.’

      Hatonis’s eyes widened. ‘Burn … But the city will be under siege. They will have put hulks into the harbor mouth to keep the Emerald Queen’s ships from sailing in, and it will be impossible to get within twenty miles of the city for the patrols on both sides.’

      ‘How long will it take to rebuild those yards if they’re destroyed?’ asked Calis.

      Hatonis shrugged. ‘The yards are massive, and have been built up slowly over the last few centuries. It would take years to restore them. Lumber must be harvested up here and in the Sothu and Sumanu mountains and shipped downriver or carried in wagons. The great keels take a year or more to be cut and brought down, at great expense.’

      Nakor almost danced, he was so excited. ‘If we burn the yards, we get five, six, maybe as many as ten years before ships can be built here. Many, many things can happen in that time. This Emerald Queen, can she keep her host together that long? This I think unlikely.’

      Calis’s eyes seem to light with the prospect. Then he fought back his enthusiasm and said, ‘Don’t sell her short, Nakor.’

      Nakor nodded. The two had spoken at great length about what they had seen, and knew they were dealing with the most dangerous foe since the Tsurani invasion of the Riftwar. ‘I know, but men are men, and unless the Pantathian magic is so powerful as to make their hearts change, many of these soldiers of hers will forsake her banner without payment.’

      ‘Still,’ said Hatonis, ‘denying her the shipyards would be a major victory. My father ran the most successful trading consortium in the City of the Serpent River. We can send men to the Pa’jkamaka Islands and ensure they do not sell her ships. I will personally guarantee no shipwright in the City of the Serpent River will work on her behalf.’

      Calis said, ‘You know that after Maharta she will march on you? It’s logical.’

      ‘I