Unclean

mercenaries, soldiers once again.

'Or perhaps you don't care about honor,' he continued. 'Maybe you never had it in the first place. That's what people say about gnolls, that in their hearts and minds, they're vile as rats. You tell me if it's true.'

Pupils shrunk small by the magical glare, Wesk glowered for a moment. Then he growled, 'Put out the light and we'll talk some more.'

Bareris's muscles went limp with relief, because while he still had little confidence that the gnolls would prove reliable if things became difficult, he discerned that, for the present at least, they meant to follow him.

CHAPTER SEVEN

29 Mirtul, the Year of Risen Elfkin

Aoth and Brightwing studied Dulos, the hamlet far below. For a moment, the place looked ordinary enough, the usual collection of sod-roofed huts and barns, but then the griffon rider observed that no one was working the fields and that sheep, pigs, and oxen lay torn and rotting in their pens. Then, his senses linked to his familiar's, he caught the carrion stink.

'The undead have been here,' he said.

'No, really?' Brightwing replied.

Aoth was too intent on the work at hand, and perhaps too full of memories of the massacres at Thazar Keep and beside the river, to respond to the sarcasm in kind. 'The question is, are they still here, or have they moved on?'

'I can't tell from up here.'

'Neither can I. Perhaps the Burning Braziers can. Or the necromancers. Let's return to the company.'

The griffon wheeled, and her wings, shining gold in the sunlight, swept up and down. Soon Aoth's patrol appeared below.

The force was considerably smaller than the army that had met disaster in the mouth of the Pass of Thazar. Supposedly, once the undead horde gained access to the central plateau, they'd dispersed into smaller bands. Thus, Nymia Focar's host had no choice but to do the same if they hoped to eradicate the creatures as rapidly as possible.

When Brightwing landed, Aoth's lieutenants were waiting to confer with him, or at least they were supposed to be his lieutenants. Nymia had declared him in charge, but Red Wizards had little inclination to recognize the authority of anyone not robed in scarlet, while the militant priests of Kossuth had somehow acquired the notion that Szass Tam and the other zulkirs had all but begged Iphegor Nath to dispatch them on this mission and accordingly believed everyone ought to defer to them.

Aoth tried to diminish the potential for dissension by making sure to solicit everyone's opinions before making a decision and by pretending to weigh them seriously even when they betrayed complete ignorance of the craft of war. It seemed to be working so far.

'The enemy,' he said, swinging himself off Brightwing's back, 'attacked the village.'

Her red metal torch weapon dangling in her hand, the scent of smoke clinging to her, Chathi Oandem frowned. The hazel-eyed priestess of Kossuth had old burn scars stippling her left cheek, the result, perhaps, of some devotion gone awry, but Aoth found her rather comely nonetheless, partly because of her air of energy and quick intelligence.

'They've come this far west then, this close to Eltabbar.'

'Yes,' said Aoth. 'It makes me wonder if they might even have been bold enough to attack Surag and Thazrumaros.' They were larger towns that might have had some hope of fending off an assault. 'But for the time being, our concern is here. Can someone cast a divination to see if the settlement is still infested?'

Chathi opened her mouth, no doubt to say that she'd do it, but Urhur Hahpet jumped in ahead of her. Evidently not content with a single garment denoting his status, the sallow, pinch-faced necromancer wore a robe, cape, and shoulder-length overcape, all dyed and lined with various shades of red, as well as a clinking necklace of human vertebrae and finger bones.

'If it will help,' he said, with the air of a lord granting a boon to a petitioner, 'but we need to move up within sight of the place.'

So they did, and Aoth made sure everyone advanced in formation, weapons at the ready, despite the fact that he and Brightwing had just surveyed the approach to the hamlet from the air and hadn't observed any potential threats. After seeing the lacedons rise from the river, he didn't intend to leave anything to chance.

Nothing molested them, and when he was ready, Urhur whispered a sibilant incantation and spun his staff, a rod of femurs fused end to end, through a mystic pass. The air darkened around him as if a cloud had drifted in front of the sun, reminding Aoth unpleasantly of the nighthaunt's ability to smother light.

'There are undead,' the wizard said. 'A fair number of them.'

'Then we'll have to root them out,' said Aoth.

Urhur smiled a condescending smile. 'I think you mean burn them out. Surely that's the safest, easiest course, and it will give our cleric friends a chance to play with their new toys.'

The Burning Braziers bristled. Aoth, however, did his best to mask his own annoyance. 'Safest and easiest, perhaps, but it's possible there are still people alive in there.'

'Unlikely, and in any case, you're talking about peasants.'

'Destroying the village would also make it impossible to gather additional intelligence about our foes.'

'What do you think there is to learn?'

'We'll know when we find it.' Aoth remembered his resolve to lead by consensus, or at least to give the appearance, and looked around at the other officers in the circle. 'What do the rest of you think?'

As expected, the other necromancers sided with Urhur, but rather to Aoth's relief, the Burning Braziers stood with him, perhaps because Urhur so plainly considered himself their superior as well. It gave the griffon rider the leeway to choose as he wanted to choose without unduly provoking the Red Wizards, or at least he hoped it did.

'Much as I respect your opinions,' he said to Urhur, 'I think that this time we need to do it the hard way. We'll divide the company into squads who will search house to house. We need at least one necromancer or priest in every group, and we want the monks and Black Flame Zealots sticking close to the Burning Braziers in case a quell or something similar appears. Clear?'

Apparently it was. Though after he turned away, he heard Urhur murmur to one of his fellows that it was a crime that a jumped-up little toad of a Rashemi should be permitted to risk Mulan lives merely to pursue a forlorn hope of rescuing others of his kind.

The nature of the battle to come required fighting on the ground, and as the company advanced, Aoth and Brightwing strode side by side.

'You should have punished Urhur Hahpet for his disrespect,' the griffon said.

'And wound up chained in a dungeon for my temerity,' Aoth replied, 'if not now, then when the campaign is over.'

'Not if you frightened him properly.'

'His specialty is manipulating the forces of undeath. How easily do you think he scares?'

Still, maybe Brightwing was right. The Firelord knew, Aoth had never aspired to be a leader of men-he only needed good food, strong drink, women, magic, and flying to make him happy-and he still found it ironic that he'd ascended to a position of authority essentially by surviving a pair of military disasters. Contributing to a victory or two struck him as a far more legitimate qualification.

Which was to say, he was certain of his competence as a griffon rider and battle mage but less so of his ability as a captain. Still, here he was, with no option but to try his best.

'Maybe Urhur won't survive the battle,' Brightwing said. 'Maybe that would be better all around.' It was one of those moments when the griffon revealed that, for all her augmented intelligence and immersion in the human