arm.
'By the Old Gods, Tarscenian, the power!' she whis shy;pered. 'I have the might of two score mages inside of me.'
Her companion waited while Ancilla composed herself. She closed her eyes, and her lips moved, but Tarscenian could not divine whether she spoke spell or prayer. After a few moments, Ancilla seemed to gain some control over the magical forces raging within her.
'This is our last chance, Tarscenian,' Ancilla said res shy;olutely, looking up at her longtime friend and compan shy;ion. 'We go now to Erolydon-to challenge my brother.
Chapter 4
Pounding and shouting at thc front door of their treetop mansion in Solace shook the Vakon family from their beds just after midnight. Jeffers, the manservant, was the first to the door, but Ceci Vakon, mistress of the home, followed a short distance behind.
'Is the master home?' Jeffers whispered to Ceci. He clutched a small axe of the variety normally used to chop kindling.
She shook her head. 'Mendis isn't home yet. Perhaps something has happened to him.'
A resonant voice boomed through the locked door. 'Death to heretics!' Ceci recognized the booming bass voice as that of the high priest of the Seeker temple in Solace.
'High Priest Dahos!' she whispered. 'And Hederick's
goblins. What are they doing here?'
Jeffers's face was young, pale, and defiant. 'I'm the only man in the house,' he said staunchly. 'I will protect you.'
'No. This must be a mistake,' Ceci replied. 'The High Theocrat promised us protection. Open the door. I'll speak to them.'
The young servant followed her orders but kept the small axe in view and stood stubbornly in the doorway next to his mistress. Clutching her lacy nightrobe at her throat with one hand, she surveyed the tall, robed Plains shy;man and the half-dozen goblins who ranged on the walk shy;way just outside the door. Behind them was nothing but the forty-foot drop from the walkway to the forest floor. The Vakon home, like most in Solace, was built in the branches of a vallenwood tree, linked to the other treetop buildings by snakelike wood-and-rope walkways.
'What do you want?' Ceci demanded. 'It's the middle of the night, Dahos. You've frightened my servants and my children.'
Dahos inclined his head, and replied. 'The High Court of the Seekers of the New Gods in Solace has convicted you and your family of heresy, Mistress Vakon.' The for shy;mal tone could not mask the gleeful triumph in his dark eyes. 'We are here to take you into church custody. Come outside.'
'I will not!' Ceci Vakon retorted. 'There's been a mis shy;take. We are under the protection of the High Theocrat of Solace. My husband will take care of this misunderstand shy;ing in the morning. Now go!' She turned on the ball of one foot, dismissing the dark-robed priest with a toss of her head.
Thus it was that she missed the signal that passed from Dahos to the six goblins. A half-dozen maces and spears came up to the ready.
But Jeffers saw. He drove his shoulder into Ceci's side
and sent her sprawling onto the walkway. He lifted his axe. He never got a chance to use it.
Out of the darkness flashed a spear-hurtling side shy;ways, like a long-handled sword, not point forward like an ordinary spear or lance. It was a movement peculiar to the Plainsman tribe from which Dahos hailed. The wea shy;pon slashed above the maces of several chattering goblins and cut through the manservant's neck like a cleaver through a round of cheese. Mendis Vakon's young sons piled into the room in time to see the loyal servant's head spin over the railing of the aerial walkway. His body crashed to the doorstep. Ceci Vakon and her children screamed in terror.
Several months ago, the cacophony would have brought dozens of neighbors running to their aid, but no one appeared now. All of Solace cowered under the boot heel of Hederick, the new High Theocrat of the treetop village.
'Yellow Eyes, take two goblins and empty the house,' Dahos snapped at one of the goblins, whose broad nose twitched at the smell of Jeffers's blood. 'There may be other servants within. If they resist, kill them. If not, bring them along. They'll bring more money to Erolydon's cof shy;fers. Find the daughter. Assemble them on the walkway, next to the railing, with their backs to the drop.'
It was a complicated command for a goblin, but the one called Yellow Eyes was smart for that species. The leader of sorts, he scurried to obey. The high priest turned toward the far walkway.
'People of Solace!' he shouted into the darkness. 'Bear this in mind! This is how Hederick, High Theocrat of Solace, rewards heretics and other sinners!'
Ceci Vakon, her young sons, teen-age daughter, and serving maids lined up on the walkway. The goblins scrambled through the dwelling, gathering platinum candlesticks, jeweled chalices, polished steel serving plates, and anything else that seemed valuable. The rest of the furnishings they destroyed.
'These precious objects will be better used in the holy setting of the temple Erolydon than in the lair of heretics,' Dahos proclaimed. 'We will consecrate them first, of course.'
'My husband will avenge this!' Ceci snapped. 'What are you going to do with us-pitch a woman and children off the walkway, pious coward that you are?' Ceci's daughter burst into tears, but her mother continued her brave but foolhardy speech. 'My husband will have your head for this, High Priest. He'll go to the Highseekers Council in Haven! We are under Hederick's protection, I tell you!'
'Silence!' Dahos thundered.
Yellow Eyes flourished a short-handled sword before Ceci's face. Discomfited as much by his rancid breath as by the violent gesture, she clamped her mouth shut and glared at the smelly creature. Her children swarmed around her, but the goblins forced them back into line.
Then Ceci heard the screams in the distance. Loons, she thought at first. But the only loons in Solace would be nesting out at northern Crystalmir Lake, out of earshot. Along with the screeches came the unmistakable thrum shy;ming of wings. The strange sound grew nearer.
Defiance drained from Ceci Vakon. Her youngest son spun around.
'Mama!' he cried. 'Huge bats!' She whirled. 'Night hunter bats!' she breathed. Ceci lunged forward to drag her children into the house. But Yellow Eyes and the others easily pinioned their captives. There were eight giant bats-each one seven feet long. Their eyes, some red, some violet like their fur, glowed in the night. They could kill easily with the claws that glit shy;tered at the end of their papery wings. They could kill just as deftly with their rapier-sharp, triangular tails. And, of course, like any Krynnish bat, the night hunters had fangs that were deadly.
'Death to heretics!' Dahos bellowed again at the silent houses of Solace. 'Gather by your windows and watch, sinful people. Witness the fate of those who reject lives of holiness offered in the sanctity of the New Gods!'
Each bat plucked up a human in its claws. Holding their captives by the scruff of their nightclothes, the bats fluted and screeched as they bore away their screaming victims.
'Take them to the slave trader Arabat!' Dahos shouted over the noise. 'He waits on the southern edge of town.'
Mindless of the consequences if the bat dropped her, Ceci twisted back toward the high priest, her nightrobe swirling in the humid air.
'My husband …' she shouted.
'… is dead, Madam,' Dahos finished for her. 'Or soon will be.'
Mendis Vakon heard faint screams as he crouched in the darkness before Erolydon's wrought-iron gate. He was north of Solace, and whatever emitted that caterwaul shy;ing was headed in the other direction. Small
