O'Tal frowned, clearly not satisfied by this answer. But before he could say more, E'Menua gave the order to resume riding. Moments later they were galloping after the Eandi, the drumming of their horses' hooves seeming to make the ground tremble. Grinsa wasn't sure how far they'd have to ride before they encountered the invaders. The rearguard could have been two leagues behind the army, or one mile behind it. As it turned out, the distance might have been even less than that.

Grinsa and the Fal'Borna topped a small rise, and found themselves facing an army of at least two thousand men, possibly more. Archers were positioned at the front of the force, spread in a wide arc, no doubt to make it harder for the Qirsi to raise a wind against their volleys of arrows. The Mettai stood near the center of the army. There didn't appear to be many of them, but Grinsa was sure there were enough to kill every Fal'Borna rider in E'Menua's force.

But the army itself was the least of his concerns. The expanse of grass between the Qirsi army and the Eandi was already teeming with creatures that made Grinsa's blood turn cold. There were serpents, as long as a peddler's cart and as thick around as a horse's neck. Great wolves, nearly as large as the horses ridden by the Fal'Borna, loped toward the Qirsi army. Enormous eagles circled overhead, their wings so broad they seemed to blot out the sun, their talons as long and sharp as daggers.

E'Menua signaled a halt, and for a few moments Grinsa and the others simply stared at the scene before them. Several of the younger warriors appeared stricken with terror.

"These creatures are nothing," E'Menua said at last, contempt in his voice. He looked back at his riders, a harsh grin on his face. "They think they can frighten us with big dogs and a few snakes?" He faced forward again and shouted, "Shapers!"

The eagles were closest, and so they were the a'laq's first target. Grinsa felt the pulse of magic as E'Menua sent it forth. But still, he wasn't prepared for the deafening shrieks that came from the giant birds above them. A moment before they had been as graceful and terrible as any creatures Grinsa had ever seen. Now, their wings broken and flailing, their backs arched in agony, they tumbled to the earth, landing in great heaps on the plain.

"Shapers again!" E'Menua called.

This time the a'laq directed their magic forward instead of up. An instant later, the lead wolves let out loud yelps of pain and crumpled to the ground. Grinsa could see the Mettai conjuring more birds and more wolves, but clearly the creatures could be defeated with shaping magic.

"The snakes!" Q'Daer shouted.

Grinsa saw them, too. It seemed they were too low to have been hit by the shaping magic that killed the wolves. They were disturbingly fast and had nearly reached the Qirsi lines.

His eyes wide, E'Menua shouted, "Fire!"

The a'laq aimed the flame low, and made it spread like low waves over sand. It blackened the grass and slammed into the snakes, so that they twisted and writhed on the charred ground.

Again, these horrors called forth by the Mettai couldn't withstand the Fal'Borna's magic. But Grinsa couldn't help noticing that E'Menua and the other Weavers had yet to direct an attack at the Eandi. It was all they could do to defend themselves against the Mettai attacks.

Even as he formed the thought, he saw the Mettai conjuring again. And this time, rather than calling forth more wolves or eagles or snakes, the blood and earth that flew from their hands changed into something that looked almost like sand. Except that it didn't billow in the wind and fall to the ground. Instead, it spread across the sky and soared toward the Qirsi riders so swiftly that Grinsa felt panic grip his heart.

"Fire!" he shouted. Reaching for the magic of the Fal'Borna around him, he sent forth a wall of flame that shimmered and danced over the plain even as it broadened to consume the spell of the Mettai sorcerers. And when the two met, the fire flared like lightning in the Growing turns, so that every person on that battlefield threw up a hand to shield his or her eyes.

"What was that?" E'Menua called to him.

Grinsa shook his head. "I don't know."

The a'laq surveyed the battlefield, his expression far more sober than it had been a few moments before. Already the Mettai were creating more of their blood animals, and Grinsa could see the Eandi archers creeping forward, trying to put themselves within range of the Fal'Borna. It seemed E'Menua saw this, too.

"O'Tal!" the a'laq called. "You take the snakes. Use fire on them-that seems to work best. H'Loryn, I need you to raise a wind. Keep it swirling. Don't let those archers reach us."

"Yes, all right," H'Loryn said in return.

"I'll keep using shaping on the eagles and wolves," E'Menua went on. "The Forelander will fight off their other spells. Q'Daer and L'Norr," he said, dropping his voice slightly. "I want the two of you to gather twenty warriors from our sept and try to use shaping magic against the Mettai. You might need to get closer to them, and I'm not sure how you should do that. That's up to you. But until the Mettai are defeated, we can't win. You understand?"

"Yes, A'Laq," the two men said in unison.

"Good. Now go."

There was much about E'Menua that Grinsa didn't like or even respect, but he couldn't find fault with the a'laq's battlefield strategy. He tried to keep one eye on the Mettai, so that he could guard against their next spell, but he also watched as Q'Daer and L'Norr wheeled their horses away and waved to several of their riders to join them. As he did this, Q'Daer glanced back at Grinsa and for just a moment their eyes met. Grinsa nodded to him, and the young Weaver gave a fierce grin. It wasn't surprising, really. It seemed to Grinsa that the man had been itching for battle since the day they met. Here it was at last.

"Fire!" O'Tal yelled.

And E'Menua followed that almost immediately with another call of "Shapers!"

Grinsa's gaze snapped forward again. Another line of snakes was getting close. Two dozen wolves trotted just behind them. Already a number of eagles were tumbling out of the sky, their great beaks open, their death cries making E'Menua's warriors cringe. He felt H'Loryn's wind rising. He saw the Mettai conjuring another of their strange mists, and he reached for the fire magic of the men behind him.

He hadn't started to tire yet, but no Qirsi, not even a Weaver, could wield his power forever. He wondered how long the Mettai could conjure.

Chapter 23

There was little for Tirnya to do but watch and wait for something terrible to happen. If Mander had been telling them the truth about his people's magic and the curse that had been put on his village, something was bound to go wrong in this battle. The eagles, wolves, and snakes would turn on the soldiers of Stelpana. One of the Mettai spells would work against the Eandi instead of the white-hairs. The plague would return and strike at her father's army.

The eldest and her people had already tried their sleeping spell against this second wave of Fal'Borna riders. Tirnya had heard her father calling for the spell, and Tirnya's first thought had been that it would fly back at them as the poison spell had by the river. She could imagine the soldiers around her falling asleep; and she could imagine as well the Fal'Borna riders moving among their still bodies, killing them as they slept, as Tirnya and her men had done in that sept they'd encountered early on. It was as if the gods were punishing her people for starting this new Blood War. It was like a waking nightmare.

When a wall of Qirsi fire appeared and burned the Mettai spell out of the sky, Tirnya actually cried out, fearing that this was the curse again, that the dazzling blaze overhead would rain down upon them and kill them all.