brother, the rules of magic; once used, a spell vanished from the spell-caster's head until he could study it again. Great magic took a great physical toll. Asking more of Janusz now could kill him.
'But the Valdane-' she tried again.
'I will come. Give me your arm.'
Kitiara helped the mage up the hill into the Valdane's tent and eased him onto a bench before the leader's small desk. She retreated to a spot by the door, but she didn't leave. One of the generals, streaked with blood, shoved her aside and entered the tent. 'Valdane, we are losing!' he blurted.
The Valdane stood, eyes snapping blue below his carrot-red hair. 'How can that be?'
'They outnumber us seven to one.'
'But I hired you to defeat the Meiri!' The Valdane advanced upon the mercenary leader, his hand upon his sword hilt.
The general looked desperate. 'We must retreat. Perhaps we can gather in the mountains and regroup…' He stepped backward.
The Valdane leaned over and yanked the badge of office from the corpse. He handed the blood-daubed crest to Kitiara. 'General Uth Matar,' the Valdane said soberly, 'take command.'
Kitiara swallowed. The mage, in the background, was smiling with ill-concealed contempt. She'd been named general of a losing army, answering to an insane leader who executed his defeated generals. No wonder Janusz was gleeful. Kitiara wouldn't survive the day, and the mage's purple jewels would remain his secret.
The Valdane's face showed that he thought he was doing Kitiara an honor. 'Thank you, sir,' she said, barely keeping the irony out of her voice. She stepped over the corpse of her predecessor and resumed her position by the door. As soon as the Valdane's attention was focused on the mage, she slipped through the flap and sped toward her own tent. On the way, she hurled the general's crest into the mud.
Kitiara slowed as she passed the mage's quarters. Janusz was occupied in the Valdane's tent, and he was severely weakened now. Kitiara was practically certain that he hadn't set the wards that protected the sandalwood box. She hesitated. It was a safe bet the Valdane wouldn't be hunting down his defeated mercenaries to pay them the wages owed them. If she was going to flee the battlefield, she might as well take her pay with her, in the form of a purple jewel or two.
Kitiara looked around and slipped into the tent. In a second, she was on her knees before the trunk. She took a deep breath and, hoping the mage hadn't left a magical snake within to guard his wealth, she lifted the heavy lid. Nothing happened. She pulled out the sandalwood box. If the mage had set wards anywhere, it would be here. She lifted the box's lid. Again nothing.
She forgot her worries as the glow of nine purple stones streamed up from the sandalwood box. 'The power of ten lifetimes,' the mage had said. Perhaps she could unlock that power. She'd need a mage to help her. And what better mage than her own brother, Raistlin, back in the city of Solace? He'd been studying at a school for mages since he was a boy. She knew he was gifted; certainly he was loyal.
This would require some thought.
At the moment, however, the situation required action more than thought. Cursing her reverie, she scooped the nine stones into a pocket and dashed from the room.
She met Wode, Caven's squire, at the appointed place. The lanky youngster was holding Obsidian's bridle and staying out of range of a stamping black stallion tied to an oak. Saying nothing, Kitiara wrenched the reins from Wode and mounted the mare. She was pulling the horse around when a voice hailed her.
Kitiara pulled up. 'Caven, I'm leaving.'
He vaulted onto Maleficent, his stallion. Caven was the only one who could handle the beast, whom he'd acquired in a game of bones with a minotaur on Mithas. 'I'm going with you.'
'But-' Kitiara began.
'I'm going,' he interrupted doggedly. He gestured to Wode, and the teen-ager dashed away.
Kitiara decided she might need him. Especially now. 'Let's go.' She could always ditch Caven later, she thought.
In moments, the two ebony horses with their black-haired riders vanished into the trees. Within minutes, Wode, mounted on a rangy brown nag, clattered after them.
Behind them, the battle neared a bloody end. The mage, leaning heavily on a staff, and the Valdane strode into Janusz's tent. 'Use the stones,' the leader ordered.
'Not yet,' Janusz said, dropping onto his cot.
'You said they were powerful.'
'They require much study,' the mage protested. 'I don't know their secrets yet.'
'Use them!'
Wearily rising to his feet, the mage stepped to the sandalwood box, began the spell to unlock the box, then stopped in mid-incantation. Hands shaking, he reached out. The lid came up easily. The mage looked up, horror and anger warring on his gray face, then stared back into the sandalwood box. 'They're gone!' he whispered. 'That bitch!' Janusz, his lips thin, reached into his pocket and pulled out two glowing stones. 'She has nine, while only one may be enough to rule Krynn, for all I know.'
A shout sounded outside. The self-important general entered, nervousness apparent in every twitch of his hands. 'We have found the body of your son-in-law, Valdane,' he said, adding unnecessarily, 'the Meir.'
'So?' snapped the leader. 'We knew he died days ago, in the first attack. Go away or get to the point. I have greater problems.'
The general looked deflated. 'The corpse of a woman lies at the coffin's foot.'
'Do I care? Who is it?'
'It… it appears to be the body of the Meir's wife.'
The Valdane grew deadly quiet, then spoke. 'Kitiara swore Dreena escaped.'
'It appears Captain Uth Matar was wrong, Valdane,' the general said, his words thick with spite. 'The body wears the wedding jewelry of Dreena ten Valdane-the malachite owl on a chain of silver thread. The chain is melted, but the stone is identifiable.'
The Valdane's voice remained quiet. 'Dreena would never part with that.'
'By the dark god Morgion,' Janusz said brokenly at last. His words rasped. 'Dreena died in the magefire. And I.. ' He swayed and leaned heavily against the trunk that once held the sandalwood box. His voice trailed off. Dazed, he watched as the general met the same fate as his colleague only minutes before.
As the general choked out his last, the Valdane swung back to the mage. His face was colorless; his fists were clenched.
'As you value your life, mage, find Kitiara Uth Matar. Bring her to me. I will see her die.'
Chapter 1
The scream shredded the night like a broad-axe cleaves the head of an ogre.
Wayfarers in the woods learned to awaken in a hurry, or they didn't awaken at all. In an eyeblink, Tanis Half-Elven leaped into awareness and, with a smoothness born of many nights spent in lonely camps, pulled his longsword from his pallet. He swept sand over the campfire embers with one kick of a bare foot and froze, sword extended diagonally before him. Tanis pivoted slowly and waited, his elven night-vision probing deep into the surrounding underbrush.
Nothing. The breeze barely disturbed the spring leaves of the maple saplings that crowded around him. The wind wafted the scent of mud and decayed plants from the White-rage River to the north but carried no sound beyond the stream's gurgle and the creaking of the ageless oaks overhead. Both moons, silver Solinari and scarlet Lunitari, were waning, and the clearing's darkness would have been nearly impenetrable to anyone but a night-
