"Good, Safar said. I'm glad you believe that. Because that is how you will defeat Manacia."
Iraj's expression was puzzled. He didn't understand.
"The whole human world fears the demons, Safar said. Use that fear against Manacia. Raise your standard, claim all humankind as your clan… and strike him down.
"Before winter set in you faced the prospect of many years of battle to claim Caspan as your realm. Manacia has done your work in less than a season.
"Defeat him and you have the north."
Iraj brightened. And the demonlands, he pointed out. I'll have them as well."
"First we have to cross the Forbidden Desert, Safar cautioned.
Iraj gave a cheery wave. You mean the curse? Hells, I was never worried about that. You'll figure it out when we get there.
"Besides, if Manacia can do it, so can you."
"I'm glad you still have confidence in me, Safar said, again taking a lesson from Coralean and letting a measure of humility leak through.
"As I see it, Safar continued, our greatest danger will be Manacia's magic. It's well know that demons are much more powerful sorcerers than humans."
"An overblown reputation, as far I'm concerned, Iraj scoffed, gaining confidence by the minute. I saw you bring down an avalanche on a whole pack of them, remember?"
Safar had few delusions about himself. He'd spent the winter testing his powers and at first had been amazed at the newly possible. But in reading the Book of Asper, the demon wizard, he saw glimmerings of a power that might be beyond him.
"I caught them by surprise, Safar said. Besides, it was only a score or more we were faced with. Not a whole demon armywith a legion of wizards to support them."
"You just worry about Manacia's wizards, Safar, Iraj replied. I'll take care of his damned army."
Worry is not such an easy thing to limit. The mind may decree borders, but once erected those borders are immediately beset by fears both large and small. Nights become sleepless landscapes littered with innumerable difficulties and imagined pitfalls threatening the mightiest of beings. Large things may seem insurmountable mountains during those torturous hours when others sleep. Small things may suddenly erupt into fears rivaling those mountains.
In the north, King Manacia consolidated his army and searched for the route over the Gods Divide. But his nights were haunted by imagined plots involving his son, Prince Luka. Then word filtered through of a mighty human king with flowing hair and beard of gold. This monarchKing Iraj Protarusbore the standard of Alisarrian and was rousing the populace to oppose Manacia and destroy his long cherished dreams of empire.
Sitting at the right hand of that king, it was said, was a human wizard so powerful he was the equal of any demon lord of sorcery. The wizard, Safar Timura, had eyes as blue as the sunlit heavens.
When Manacia slept at all he was troubled by nightmares in which his son suddenly turned into a human with a golden beard and sky blue eyes. In this nightmare Manacia would be forced to embrace his son and heir before his court, knowing full well a dagger would be thrust into his back.
In the south, King Protarus massed his forces and toured his realm, spreading the news of the demon invasion. He gave thundering speeches, decrying the atrocities committed by the demonssome real, some created. He was a handsome young prince, a compelling speaker who quickly made his subjects forget the atrocities he had committed himself in winning his kingdom. People rushed to support him, swelling his armies, crying for revenge against the demon invaders.
But Iraj's nights were as sleepless as Manacia's.
What if Safar was wrong? What if he were not as great a seer as Iraj believed? And what if his friend was not truly his friend? If he were as powerful a wizard as Iraj believed, might he not seize the throne of Esmir as soon as Iraj had won it? And if not, why not? Which brought him back to the original worry that Safar was so weak Iraj was a fool to rely on him.
Safar was no king, which gave him ample reason to harbor fears equal to both monarchs combined.
If Iraj believed Safar was in the way he'd betray him with barely a thought. Safar wondered about the vision in which he'd seen Iraj's victorious march on Zanzair. What if that part were true, but in reality it was Safar's ghost who'd witnessed it? He'd certainly felt like a spirit during the vision. What if his dreamcatcher self had slipped past the part where Safar was betrayed and slain by his blood brother? It troubled him he'd never been able to see past that moment when Iraj's armies marched on Zanzair. And what of the other visionthe vision of Hadinin which all was for naught and the world was rushing toward its end?
Then there was the greatest fear of all.
For either kingManacia or Protarusthe key was Kyrania.
What if the two monarchs met in battle in the High Caravans?
What if Safar's valley and everyone he lovedmother, father, sisters, friendswere destroyed in that confrontation?
After a time this worried Safar even more than the destruction of the world itself.
It was impossible to imagine the last.
But frighteningly easy to see the first.
In the end it was fear for Kyrania that drove Safar. He was willing to dare anything to save it.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Safar crouched in the flowered peaks above Kyrania. It was early summer, the rains had been sweet, the heavens kind, and his valley was a misty shimmer beneath the pale morning sun. The fields were emerald green, the lake was a great blue diamond fed by springs flowing down the mountains in a silvery pilgrimage to the Goddess Felakia.
"So this is your home, Leiria said in awe. I've never seen anything so beautiful. It's like a dream."
Safar motioned for silence. His magical self had arrowed past Leiria's dream and found a nightmare. In his innermost pocket the stone idol blistered warning.
He signaled to the menfifty of Iraj's finest mounted warriors. They dismounted, positioned feed bags to silence their horses and quickly shifted their gear to ready themselves for battle.
Leiria raised an eyebrow. What's wrong?"
"Watch, Safar said.
He plucked a glass pellet from his pouch and hurled it to the ground. It shattered and pale green smoke whooshed up, swirling to the height of a knee. First a landscape, then figures toiling in that landscape, took form in the smoke. There were at least two score of themminiature humans moving through the fields of Kyrania. They seemed agonized, smoke forms twisting and leaping in pain. Larger columns of smoke funneled up, hardening into the givers of that pain. They were creatures of snouted fangs and taloned claws.
Leiria caught her breath. Demons!"
Safar didn't answer. He gestured and the smoke image vanished. He slumped onto the boulder, so mournful it was all Leiria could do not to console himbranding herself as a weakling in the eyes of her fellow soldiers.
"This changes everything, she said, colder than she'd intended. We'd best return immediately and tell the king the demons have seized Kyrania."
Safar nodded absently. His thoughts were barely of this world. He was imagining the terrors his family and friends were suffering.
Safar had intended to warn his people of the coming peril, then set up shields to confuse the demons if and when they attacked through the pass. Iraj was even now gathering a force of shock troops to be rushed in to fill the gap until his main army had time to arrive. Safar had convinced Iraj even greater haste must be madethat he should go out in advance of the troops and prepare the way. Now it seemed his mission to Kyrania, which had required much cajolement to win Iraj's approval, was a failure before it started.