The Serpentwar Saga. Raymond E. Feist

      Erik turned and, hunkering down so those marching post on the wall wouldn’t notice him, moved off. The sentries weren’t there to keep Erik and the others inside, he was now certain, but to ensure no one outside got close.

      The two young men circled around to the far side of what Erik had come to think of as the officers’ quarters; at least, that was where de Loungville retired every night, and where Calis seemed to reside. They ducked along, keeping away from the line of lancers, who sat their horses easily as they turned their mounts around and began riding back toward the gate. Erik glanced at them long enough to realize they weren’t heading out again, merely moving away from the command building. Erik had a suspicion but said nothing to Roo.

      The two of them darted along behind the building, and crept under a window. Faint voices carried. Erik motioned for Roo to remain silent and moved to another window. Here he could barely make out the sound of conversation.

      ‘… need to be gone before the camp rises. Every man here has seen me at least once. It would not do for my presence to be detected. Too many questions.’

      A man’s voice – Erik thought it sounded like Calis – answered: ‘I agree. Something urgent must have brought you here. What is it?’

      ‘Nicholas received a warning from the Oracle. She begins her mating with the eldest of her attendants, and the new Oracle will be conceived this summer.’

      Calis was silent a moment, then said, ‘I know as much about the Lifestone as any living, Miranda, save those who saw it at Sethanon. I’m not certain I appreciate the significance of what you tell me, though.’

      Miranda laughed, and Erik thought it a sound without humor. ‘It seems that as we embark on this dangerous course, the Oracle of Aal begins a mating, birth, and death cycle that will take the better part of five years. In other words, just as we seek to end the danger to the Lifestone, the Oracle is going to mate, give birth to her successor, and die. We will be without the oracle’s visions for the next twenty-five years, until the daughter reaches maturity.’

      Calis said, ‘I know little of the Ancients of Aal, save the legends about them. I take it this mating is a surprise to you?’

      Miranda mumbled something Erik couldn’t hear, then said, ‘… the limit of seeing one’s own future, I suppose. A rebirth that limits the Oracle’s abilities for a twenty-five-year period once every thousand years is little more than an inconvenience, from that perspective, but it’s certainly ill timed from ours.’

      ‘Is Nicholas thinking of canceling our plans?’

      Miranda said, ‘I don’t know. I can’t read him as I could his father. He’s so much like him in some ways, yet so different in others. I’ve only met him twice before, and I have no doubt he would have little trust for me were it not for you and James vouching for me.’

      ‘You’ve convinced us of your sincerity and commitment to stop the enemy, even if you’re damn unbending in revealing much about yourself.’ He paused a moment. ‘What’s the upshot of all of this?’ asked Calis.

      ‘It means we need to move even sooner than we thought. It means you should dismantle this camp starting today and have your ships ready to depart next week.’

      Calis was silent. Then he said, ‘I have six men who are not trained, and we’re barely half the number we had planned on. I cannot depend on hired mercenaries. Too many good men died last time because I made that mistake. I need –’ He stopped himself. ‘You know all the arguments. Bobby and I made them to Arutha three years ago. If we must go with only thirty-six men, I will take the next nine days to evaluate the last six. I’ll hang them myself before I’ll let them become a weak link in the chain we’re forming, but I’ll at least give them that little bit of time to prove themselves.’

      Miranda’s voice rose. ‘I have been through a great deal to select these men, Calis. I think I know each one well. I think you have only two who might break, Goodwin and de Savona. The others will do as we need.’

      ‘Might break,’ he repeated. ‘That’s the problem. You think. If I knew they would break, I’d execute them tonight. If I knew they would stand fast, I would leave tomorrow. But if we judge wrong, and if one of them breaks at the wrong time

      ‘Nothing is certain.’

      There was a dry chuckle and Calis said, ‘Working with an oracle has given us something of a false illusion of certainty, I’m afraid. If we return to the certainty that nothing is clear before it happens, we might survive this venture.’

      ‘I’m leaving. If you insist on lingering the next nine days, so be it, but Nicholas is adamant we should move as soon as possible. We’ve captured two agents and they know we’re up to something.’

      ‘Dead?’

      ‘Now they are. Gamina read both men before they died and found out little we didn’t already know, but it’s clear the snakes are closing in on this facility. You’ve done well covering your tracks for the last year, but now they know something unusual is happening outside of Krondor. The next bunch of spies they send won’t be sniffing around the palace, they’ll be out here in the woods looking for this encampment. Once they discover it was here –’

      ‘We’ve taken every precaution.’

      ‘Someone who loaded a wagon of beef will say something in an inn. Someone at the palace will let a list of prisoners be seen while he’s out of an office. It will take time, but within a year, not only will the snakes know you’re in their way again, they’ll have the name of every man with you.’

      Calis was silent, then said something Erik couldn’t make out. Suddenly there was a sound of a door opening and closing, and Erik motioned for Roo to follow him in a hurry. They returned the way they went and made it back to their tent. Moving back to their bunks, Erik was silent for a moment as he caught his breath; then he woke Biggo. ‘Quiet. Wake the others.’

      When Luis, Sho Pi, and Billy were awake, Erik said, ‘Some time before you were caught, did you run into a woman named Miranda?’

      The four looked at one another, and it was Sho Pi who spoke first. ‘Dark of hair and with intense green eyes?’ Erik nodded. ‘She spoke to me outside of Shamata, while I was on the road to Krondor. There was something about her that I noticed at once. She has power.’

      ‘What did she tell you?’

      Sho Pi shrugged. ‘We talked of things of little importance. I found her very beautiful and was flattered at the attention, but her interests seemed more abstract than carnal. And I was curious why I sensed she was so much more than she seemed.’

      ‘Was there anything she said that got you tossed into jail?’

      Sho Pi said, ‘Nothing I can remember.’

      The others talked about their encounters, Billy and Luis saying she had used a different name, but it was clear that all six men had encountered the woman at some point, less than a month prior to being arrested.

      Biggo said. ‘That girl gets around, if she was talking to you’ – he pointed at Sho Pi – ‘at Shamata the week before running into Erik and Roo near Darkmoor.’

      ‘How does she know us?’ asked Luis.

      Erik said, ‘It has something to do with an oracle who reads the future. We’re important in some way, but only if we survive the next nine days. I don’t know why we were saved from the gallows, and I don’t know what we might be to these people if we continue to live, but I have no doubt of this: if Calis thinks we’re dangerous to his plans, he’ll hang us all before he breaks camp in nine days. If he thinks we’re trustworthy, he’ll keep us alive. It’s that simple.’

      Billy said, ‘It means we’ve got to work hard.’

      ‘We’ve been breaking our backs!’ complained Luis.

      ‘I mean work hard at being what they want.’

      Sho