The journey across the great grasslands west of Calmany was long and uneventful. The ever vigilant mercenary troops scanned the horizon carefully, on the lookout for any bands of outlaws or highwaymen numerous or foolish enough to attack them, but although they had the occasional sighting of a small group of figures on horseback just visible on the horizon who disappeared as soon as the mercenaries went out to investigate, they never saw anything that might be a serious threat to them. Even a small, wandering tribe of ogres thought better of taking them on, and skulked quietly away as they approached, looking for easier prey.

     The endless grasslands reminded Drake of the Endless Plains, not too far north, and in fact the wide, flat plain they were crossing was continuous with it, the two forming a single vast area of grassland that was, in turn, continuous with the Great Flat to the south east, the domain of the wagon people. The grasslands stretched three quarters of the way around Great Lake Megra, almost encircling it completely except along its north eastern coast where the forest covered foothills of the Silver Mountains reached almost to the water's edge. Those mountains, and the small but almost uncrossable desert between the lake and the Eastern sea, almost completely isolated the north eastern corner of the continent, where the Empire of Fu Nang had existed for several thousand years, almost completely cut off from the rest of the world. Even during the Shadowwars, when they had fought the Shadowhosts along with the Beltharan Empire, there had been almost no contact between the two allied Empires, the Shadow itself separating them. Consequently, Fu Nangian culture and language had grown to be unlike anything else in the world, a difference that surprised the rare visitor from the outside world where almost all other human cultures had been blurred together, their differences blotted out, by the unstoppable juggernaut that had been the Agglemonian Empire. Even now, centuries after the fall of the Empire, national cultural differences were only just beginning to emerge once more.

     The grasslands were almost completely empty of civilized life, but not quite. Here and there, towns and small cities stood defiantly, heavily fortified against the area's less civilized occupants, and for a small fee they allowed the caravan to take shelter within their walls overnight. Two weeks after leaving Calmany, they spent the night in one such town, a small cluster of wooden buildings called Sparril, and Drake spent what was left of the day's light in the market square, practising with the sword inside the circle formed by the parked wagons, to the amusement of several of the town's youths who'd gathered round to watch. Shaun and Matthew were also there, watching his technique with keen interest, and the priest took the opportunity to teach them a couple of tricks until a young man came running up and tugged on his sleeve to get his attention.

     "Yes?" said Drake to the scruffy teenager. "What is it?"

     "Please, sir," said the young man. "The soldier wants to see you. He says it's very important and to come right away."

     "What soldier?" asked Drake.

     "A Beltharan soldier, sir. We found him on the road a couple of days ago, hurt bad. We brought him back, but we haven't got any proper clerics or priests here so he had to get better in the ordinary way. He woke up today for the first time, very afraid and all excited about something and wanted to leave right away, but Merrik, my master, wouldn't let him. He said that if he did, he'd be dead before he got a mile. Then, when your caravan arrived and we found out there was a cleric of Caroli with you, Merrik went to get her to heal him, but when the soldier found out one of you was a priest of Samnos he became very excited and said to fetch you right away. Will you come? He said it's very important."

     "Very well," said Drake. "Lead the way."

     The young man led the three fighting men along the town's narrow, smelly streets to a small temple, the only stone building in the small town, standing next to a crowded graveyard. Entering the temple and going to the cleric's private chamber, they found a man sitting up in bed, surrounded by Diana, the three wizards and a middle aged man dressed as a caretaker. He wore a silver caroli flower on a chain around his neck, like Diana, but he lacked the special something else that she had. The something extra, the spark of holiness that could be seen in her eyes and heard in her voice that made her seem somehow more real, more completely there than other people. Drake could guess what had happened. The town's cleric had died somehow, without leaving a successor, and the temple caretaker was trying to fill his or her shoes. He had not yet been accepted by the Goddess of Healing, but he had the look of someone who would be, one day, if his devotion proved great enough. He stood just behind Diana, who had obviously just prayed over the soldier and channeled the Goddess’s power into him, and was watching her adoringly. His thoughts were plain to the watching priest. Maybe, one day, She will accept me. Maybe, one day, I'll be able to heal people like that. Drake wished him luck.

     The soldier noticed the priest, and almost jumped out of bed in relief and excitement, but was held down by Diana, who was telling him that he was still weak and needed to rest quietly for a while. The soldier paid her no attention, however. "Thank the Gods!" he cried. "Thank the Gods! There's still hope if we're quick!"

     Drake went over to him, but Diana stopped him. "He's still weak and needs rest," she said. "You can talk to him in the morning."

     "I think it would be best if I spoke to him now," replied Drake. "Look at him, he's not going to rest until he's got whatever it is that's bothering him off his chest. I won't tire him out, I promise."

     Diana looked back at the soldier, almost bursting with the need to say something. "The Orb! The Orb!" he cried. "We must get it before they do! There's not much time!"

     Diana nodded and stood aside, and Drake went to stand next to him. "All right," he said soothingly. "Start at the beginning and tell me all about it."

     The soldier kept babbling incoherently, however, until Diana took one of his hands in hers and spoke a few soothing words, allowing a different kind of divine energy to flow from her into him. Immediately, the man calmed down, stared at the cleric in amazement for a few seconds as if in surprise, and then he began to speak more slowly.

     His name was Petronax Drusinium, and he was a regular Beltharan soldier, stationed, until recently, as a member of the Beltharan garrison in Fort Battleaxe. Drake nodded slowly. Now that he was able to get a closer look at him, he thought he recognised him. He'd seen him a couple of times in the great fortress city, although they had never spoken to each other.

     A few months before, the soldier continued, word had come to the military commanders of the city that the Shadowarmies were about to launch a fourth invasion of the Beltharan Empire, and they had gone into a panic, realising that they had only a short time to prepare themselves and reverse the long, slow decline in military strength that the provinces had undergone. Messages had been sent to the Emperor, urgently requesting immediate reinforcements, and they had begun stockpiling supplies in preparation for the almost inevitable siege, all the while acting quietly and discreetly so as not to let the enemy know they had been warned. If the Shadowhosts found out that the Empire was preparing for war, they would almost certainly invade immediately, before the preparations were complete.

     It soon became obvious, however, that no matter how hard they tried, they could not possibly build up enough strength all along the eastern border to resist the invaders before early spring, the time they were thought most likely to attack. The reinforcements from Belthar could not possibly arrive until at least a month later, and if they weren't across the crescent moon glacier before the spring thaw they would be delayed until the following winter, by which time both Ilandia and Rahm would probably be in enemy hands.

     They did what they could, of course. Most of the troops manning the other garrisons of eastern Ilandia were moved into the fortress city, bringing it back to full strength at the expense of the rest of the border. Protecting Fort Battleaxe had to be their only priority, even if it meant sacrificing the rest of eastern Ilandia, because if it fell, all of Ilandia would inevitably follow and Belthar would be wide open to the south.

     They hoped that the ancient fortress city could survive until the reinforcements arrived, but since the strength of the enemy was not completely known, the commanders of the city continued to look for any way they could strengthen it further, and after a lot of research and delving into ancient history, they found something they could use, a long lost Orb of Proofing.

     "A what?" asked Shaun curiously. "Never heard of it."

     "They were made by a group of powerful wizards about two thousand years ago," said Thomas, whose insatiable curiosity had led him to a book about them in Lexandria's library a couple of years before. He explained that, at that time, Agglemon had been a relatively small kingdom, struggling to survive amongst old and mighty empires. They had built a chain of fortresses all along their borders for defence, but walls of stone, no matter how thick, were little defence against wizards who could disintegrate a fifteen foot wide hole in them with a single spell. The defence of a castle usually depended on having as many wizards inside as out. During an attack, the defending wizards would then fight it out with the attacking wizards, leaving the rest of the attackers to lay siege to the castle using more conventional means. Agglemon was, at the time, only a relatively small kingdom, though, and didn't have enough wizards to go around. Some other method had to be found.

     Fortunately, it so happened that the most powerful wizard then living in the world lived within the borders of Agglemon, and the King himself visited him to beg his aid in the Kingdom's defence. The wizard, Maglius the Grim, gathered a group of colleagues, and together they created the Orbs of Proofing, great hollow glass spheres filled with a special gas that had the power to amplify defensive spells so that they covered a much greater area. Spells designed to protect a single man against fire, for instance, could protect an entire city. With an Orb, a single wizard could make a castle immune to magical attacks, and even to some non magical ones such as battering rams and hurled missiles, making them virtually impregnable. Maglius made dozens of these Orbs, and soon every castle in the defensive perimeter had one. After that, very few attacks against Agglemon succeeded, and the long, slow growth of the Empire began.

     As the perimeter grew outwards, the Orbs moved with them. Transporting them was a hazardous undertaking, however, as they could not be teleported or otherwise moved by magic and so had to be moved by hand across dangerous and often hostile terrain, and they were so fragile that the slightest bump could shatter them. Many were lost on the road in this manner, and others were deliberately destroyed by enemy saboteurs who crept into the castles unseen and smashed them. A few were even captured by neighbouring kingdoms, the castle containing them being taken despite their protection. While Maglius lived, he was able to replace these lost Orbs, but when he died of old age at the age of fifty one, without having been able to pass on the secret of their creation, their numbers began to decline irreversibly.

     These days, only eleven were known to have survived. Four of them were in the hands of Belthar, having been taken from Agglemonian fortresses when the Empire finally fell, and they now resided in Beltharan fortresses protecting the passes through the Copper Mountains. Three others were held by Fu Nang and served a similar purpose in the Silver Mountains, while the rest were held by various small kingdoms and city states across the continent. Recently, though, evidence had come to light that at least one more still existed, in a lost Agglemonian fortress somewhere in the Red Mountains to the south, and so a team of men had been sent on a mission to find it and return it to Fort Battleaxe with all speed. Petronax had been part of that team, and now he was its only surviving member.

     Somehow, the Shadowarmies had found out and had sent a raiding party to ambush them, a party that had included a wizard. Three weeks out of Fort Battleaxe, a band of humans and mixed humanoids in the uniform of the Shadowarmies had sprung out of the grass all around them, taking them completely by surprise, and a barrage of magic spells had scattered them and killed nearly a third of their number before they could even raise a hand in self defence. After that, the Beltharans, dazed and disoriented, had been easy victims and had been cut down, nearly half of them by the wizard himself, who'd struck them down with blasts of freezing cold and bolts of lightning. Petronax had seen his closest comrades, men he'd served with for years, frozen into statues of ice by the enemy magic, but somehow he had survived, being left for dead as he lay unconscious among the other bodies. When he'd came to, the enemy had gone and he'd struggled back onto the road before collapsing again, to be found a few hours later by a passing farmer.

     "They're going to get the Orb for themselves!" declared the soldier desperately. "I've got to get to a Beltharan garrison and get help, organise a party to get to the Orb before they do, before it's too late! We can't let them get it!"

     "Easy now," said Drake. "The nearest Beltharan garrison is in Estgard, two weeks away. We're going that way, you can come with us."

     "Two weeks!" shouted Petronax wildly. "We can't take that long! We have to go after them now! You have to help me, you have to come with me! You have to, you must!" He grabbed Drake's arm, holding it so tightly that the priest had to use all his strength to prise his fingers off.

     "Of course," he said. "We will all come with you. Now lay back and get some rest."

     He forced the soldier back down onto the bed, and Diana spoke some more soothing words to help him relax. He was still weak from his injuries and soon fell asleep, and the others left quietly.

     "What's all this ‘we' business?" demanded Shaun as they left the temple. "We're going home! The Shadowarmies will be invading soon, and we'll be needed by our families to help defend them! We can't go gallivanting all over the continent on a wild goose chase! You go if you want, but leave us out of it!"

     "Right," agreed Thomas emphatically. "If all the soldiers in my home town have been moved to Fort Battleaxe, then my home and family are completely undefended. They need me back there."

     "Didn't you tell them to move further west?" asked Lirenna.

     "Yeah, but my dad's a stubborn old man. He probably won't think of leaving until the enemy appears over the horizon. I have to go back!"

     "You'll be helping your families a great deal more by helping to find the Orb," pointed out Drake. "Without it, Fort Battleaxe may well fall, and then it won't matter whether you're there or not. Do you think you can hold back the Shadowhosts all by yourselves?"

     "At least we'll be there," said Shaun. "Maybe we can persuade our families to move somewhere safer."

     "It is the will of the Gods that you help us," said Drake. "Why else do you think They arranged for us to meet? Would you defy Their will?"

     "It was just coincidence that we met back there," said Thomas. "You can't ascribe every coincidence to the will of the Gods! Genuine coincidences do happen from time to time! And anyway, I wouldn't care even if it was the will of the Gods! My family need me, and I'm going to them!"

     Drake flushed with anger, but controlled it with an effort. He started to say something, but Diana interrupted. "I also believe it is the will of the Gods that we go after the Orb, and I will go with Corporal Drake to find it," she said. "You don't have to come with us, however. If you want to go home, you are free to do so."

     "What?" cried Shaun and Matthew together. "Sis, don't be crazy! You'll be needed more than any of us back home! You can't be serious!"

     "I am," she said calmly. "When My Lady calls, I must answer. You must remember that I am not a free person. I am Her servant, and I must do whatever She commands. I have explained this before, and it is truer now than ever."

     "I'll go with you," said Jerry. "I've got no home or family, I'm just out to see the world. If I can help to save civilization at the same time, than why not? Besides, you'll need me."

     "That goes for me too," added Lirenna. "Haven relies on secrecy for defence, so they don't need me there. We've survived three Shadowwars, and I'm confident we'll survive this one too, so I'm with you."

     "Di, please!" begged Shaun. "Think of your little sister, your parents, your aunt and cousins! You can't just abandon them!"

     She was as immovable as a mountain, however, and the two brothers soon saw that there was no way they could talk her out of it. "All right," said Shaun at last, finally bowing to the inevitable. "If we went back without you, Dad would murder us. We'll come along."

     They all looked at Thomas, who was torn apart and close to tears. "I can't," he said pleadingly, unable to meet the cleric's eyes. "They need me, I have to go back to them! I have to! Please try to understand!"

     "We understand," said Lirenna softly, taking his hand and squeezing it. "Family always comes first. We always knew we would have to part one day, and we've already been together much longer than we ever expected. We'll always be friends, and we'll meet again when this is all over."

     Thomas nodded, tears in his eyes and unable to say a word, but then he stared in concern as Diana's eyes seemed to glaze over and a strange, dreamy expression came over her face. Shaun and Matthew rushed over to her, full of concern and worry, but she recovered almost immediately, as if nothing had happened. "Your family is safe," she said to Thomas. "They took your advice and moved to Tatria, where they will be as safe as anywhere in the days ahead." Her words contrasted sharply with the look of delighted surprise that spread across her face, however, and she stared at him as though they'd just shared the most wonderful secret in all creation.

     Thomas stared in astonishment. "How can you possibly know that?" he asked.

     "I don't know," answered the cleric, still staring at him. "My Lady must have told me! She came to me and gave me the information! A waking visitation! She came to me to tell me your family's safe and I know it's true! Absolutely, totally true!"

     Thomas remained unconvinced, however. "I don't know," he worried. "If only there were some way to be sure..."

     "You must have faith and trust the Gods," said Diana firmly. "It's true. Your family is safe, Caroli Herself has said so! Have you any idea how blessed you are? Most clerics only receive a waking visitation once or twice in their entire lives, and the one I got concerned you! Clerics of my order will be discussing this for generations, that's how significant it is!"

     Thomas was still torn by indecision, however. He dithered for a few more minutes, but he'd been healed by the power of Caroli enough times for him to know and respect the power of the Goddess. "All right, I'm with you," he said at last. "You're right, I'll be helping them more by finding the Orb than by being with them."

     "Good!" cried Jerry. "With all of us after them, those Shads don't stand a chance! That Orb's as good as ours!"

     He slapped the middle of Thomas’s back, which was as high up as he could reach, and the human wizard was forced to smile. "Right," he said. "Here we go again."