"I was looking for P'Rhil or S'Bahn," E'Menua said. "Both of them should have been there with their warriors. But like you, I couldn't find them. There was no sign of them at all."

"What do we do?" Grinsa asked.

The a'laq exhaled heavily. "We have to tell H'Loryn and O'Tal." "Do you want me with you?"

"Yes," E'Menua said. "O'Tal will want to know that I'm not mistaken or lying."

E'Menua woke one of his warriors and sent the man to find the other two a'laqs. Then Grinsa and he woke Q'Daer and L'Norr. Before long the six of them were standing together around a fire. The sky above them was dark with clouds, and snowflakes fell on them and hissed in the small blaze.

"The army has been wiped out," E'Menua told them.

O'Tal looked incredulous. "What?"

H'Loryn shook his head. "Impossible."

"I just reached for them," E'Menua said. "Not only couldn't I find any of the Weavers, I couldn't even find their men. None of them. I had Grinsa try. He couldn't find them, either."

"I don't believe it," O'Tal said.

"Try it yourself."

The young a'laq closed his eyes for several moments, his brow creased in concentration. He stood that way for what seemed a long time, until at last he opened his eyes again, looking stricken.

"Blood and bone," he whispered.

"It's true then?" H'Loryn said, a tremor in his voice.

"Could they have gone somewhere else?" Grinsa asked, ignoring him for the moment. "Somewhere we haven't thought to look?"

O'Tal shook his head. "It's only been a few days. Where else could they have gone?"

"Is it possible they went south instead of north?"

"No," O'Tal said. "We saw them ride off. They went north, and they wouldn't have turned around without letting us know."

"But how could they all be dead?" H'Loryn asked. "Even if the Eandi had managed to defeat them somehow, some would have escaped. There might be wounded, or prisoners. But you're saying that there's no one at all?"

"The Mettai," E'Menua said. "It has to have been some spell of the Mettai.”

Grinsa had to agree. H'Loryn was right: If it had been a normal battle, there would have been survivors. But if it was magic, as E'Menua suggested, that could explain how every last man had been lost.

"So what do we do?" H'Loryn asked.

"We continue north, and we fight," O'Tal said, staring at the old man as if daring him to disagree.

E'Menua nodded his approval. "That's right. We'll find a way to defeat the Mettai, and then we'll crush the dark-eye army."

"Yes, of course," H'Loryn said, as if willing himself to be brave. "My warriors will be ready to ride when you give the word, E'Menua."

E'Menua looked grim but determined. "Good. We've still a few hours until dawn. I'm going to try to sleep. The rest of you should, too."

The others turned and started back toward the warmth of their sleeping rolls. Grinsa had every intention of doing the same, but the a'laq spoke his name quietly, stopping him. Q'Daer halted as well, eyeing both Grinsa and E'Menua.

"Go," the a'laq told him. "I just need to speak with the Forelander for a moment."

Q'Daer frowned, but after a moment he left them.

"This would be a good time to tell me all that you learned from the Mettai about their magic," E'Menua said when they were alone. "I had no idea they were capable of anything like this. I don't think any of my people did."

"I'm not sure Besh and Sirj did, either," Grinsa said.

"You'll tell me what they told you?" E'Menua asked.

"Yes, of course. To be honest with you, Besh and I spent most of our time talking about the creatures they could conjure. That was what you were most concerned about, and the idea that they can conjure beasts of any sort still amazes me."

The a'laq scowled at this.

"I'm just being honest, A'Laq. Our magic, which can do so much, can't do anything like that."

"What's your point?" E'Menua demanded.

"That all of us were so concerned with dragons and demons, creyvnals and blood wolves, that those were the only spells we considered. Besh mentioned something to me, though-I didn't make much of it at the time, and neither did he. But it could explain what's happened to the other army."

E'Menua looked genuinely alarmed. "Demons and dragons don't explain it?"

"Not really, no. Even they might leave survivors. But Besh spoke of magic that could kill hundreds at a time. A poison spell, he called it. He didn't tell me how it works, and so I wouldn't know how to stop it, except…" He took a breath. "Except to try to kill every Mettai in the Eandi army.”

"We intended to do that anyway," E'Menua said. "You don't know of any defense against this poison spell?"

Grinsa started to say that he didn't, but then stopped himself, recalling his own experience with Mettai magic. That terrible night when he nearly died from Lici's plague, Besh tried several spells on him, and each one fell over him like a cool mist. It seemed that even a spell that didn't lead to the creation of a fox or hornets or a creyvnal had to take some physical form.

"Forelander?"

"Fire magic," Grinsa said.

"What?"

"Mettai conjure with earth and blood, which means that all their spells have some form, some substance. They're not just thought, like ours are. It may be that they can be burned away. That is, if we see them coming."

The a'laq nodded slowly. "Yes. That makes sense." He looked Grinsa in the eye. "Well done." He started away. "Get some sleep, Forelander. We'll be fighting before long."

Grinsa returned to his sleeping roll, but he was wide awake. Again he considered reaching for Cresenne. But she would ask him questions about the war, which inevitably would lead to what had befallen the other army. The last thing he wanted to do was frighten her.

He lay down and pulled his blankets up to his chin. Snowflakes fell on his face and melted, running over his cheeks and into his hair like tears. After a few moments of this, he pulled the blanket over his head and eventually fell asleep again.

Morning came quickly, and soon the Fal'Borna were riding again. It seemed that word of the other Fal'Borna army's fate had spread through the ranks of the warriors. Only the day before, the men had joked and sang as they rode. Now they made not a sound. Grinsa saw fear in their faces, but also the same iron resolve he'd seen in E'Menua the previous night.

Q'Daer and L'Norr rode next to Grinsa, but they didn't speak to each other or to him. The young Weavers scanned the horizon continually, as if both were eager to be the first to spot the Eandi army. Snow fell intermittently throughout the day. At times it was so heavy that Grinsa could hardly see. At other times it stopped completely and the sun shone through breaks in the clouds, making the light layer of snow on the plain sparkle brilliantly.

They came to the Thraedes late in the day and followed it northward, past the point where the K'Sand joined its flow. They'd reached the Horn; it was just to the west, across the river. But still the riders saw no sign of the Eandi, and when they stopped for the night, the mood in the camp was somber.

It was a cold night, and though it stopped snowing and the skies cleared, a harsh, frigid wind blew out of the north, making it hard to sleep.

With first light they were up and moving again, and before long they found what they'd been seeking.

Q'Daer was the first to notice, and he rose in his saddle to point, a cry on his lips. Snow still covered the ground, but ahead of them a wide swath of grass had been trampled, leaving it dark compared with the rest of the landscape.

Grinsa and the Fal'Borna riders stopped at the edge of the tracks, and the a'laqs and Weavers dismounted to take a closer look. The tracks must have been made by the Eandi. When Grinsa and the others had reached forth with their magic two nights before, there hadn't been nearly enough Qirsi in the area to disturb the land in this way. Add to this the fact that most of the prints they could make out had been made by humans and not horses, and it seemed clear that a vast Eandi army had passed this way on foot.