“That sounds like a seriously mixed up character,” said Lirenna that evening when Thomas told her about Arroc. “He seriously believes himself to be a pureblooded trog?”

     “Absolutely,” Thomas replied. “He insists that his physical appearance is within the range of normal trog physiology. It’s incredible!”

     “I suppose he could be right,” said the demi shae thoughtfully. “I mean, how much do we really know about trogs?”

     “You haven’t seen him,” said Thomas. “No way is he a pureblooded trog. He towers over Jherek, although he’s still short by our standards, and he just doesn’t have the, the, that great barrel of a chest that real trogs have. I tell you, he looks more human than trog. If he’s got no human blood in him, then I’m a goblin.”

     “Well, whatever his personal problems are, he’ll just have to work them out by himself,” said Lirenna. “In the meantime, it would probably be best to just treat him like a pureblooded trog, if that’s how he wants to be treated.”

     “Yeah, we’d already reached that same conclusion. One thing, though. We can rule out the hive theory of trog society, They have husband and wife families just like everyone else."

     Lirenna nodded. Trog females were so seldom seen by those of other races that strange ideas tended to circulate about them. It had been suggested that trogs were like ants and bees, with a few breeding females giving birth to thousands of sterile drones. Thomas had found the idea strange and exciting, but Arroc ruled it out just by existing.

     "I wonder if trog women look the same as trog men?" he mused thoughtfully. "All that flabby skin, I mean. You never saw Angus and Douglas without clothes on, did you? If their women look like that... I mean, can you imagine any human wanting to, er, well, you know, with a woman who looked like that?”

     Lirenna’s smile widened, turned into a grin. “There are shae folk who feel the same way about human men,” she said.

     Thomas blushed in embarrassment and hurriedly changed the subject. “Enough about our new friends,” he said. “Have you met your new teammates yet?”

     “Yes,” replied Lirenna, the smile fading. “They seem a nice enough bunch. One of them’s a shae man, as it happens. From the Deepwoods of Daria, so I’m not completely the odd one out. I haven’t had much chance to speak to him yet, but we seem to have a lot in common. I think we’re going to get on very well together.”

     “A shae man, eh?” said Thomas doubtfully, feeling an unexpected pang of jealousy. “I suppose he’s gloriously handsome and graceful, like all shae folk.”

     Lirenna laughed again. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to run away together. We’ve taken the first oath, remember? If I can endure the thought of you going around with this beautiful, almost naked girl cleric, then you don’t have to get jealous of me going around with a shae man. Okay?”

     Thomas smiled and took her hands. “Okay,” he agreed. “I love you, Lenny.”

     “I love you too, my Thomas,” said the demi shae, smiling happily.

     They kissed each other warmly and longingly and then lay next to each other on the cushions, their arms around each other.

     “Okay,” said Thomas. “Tell me about the rest of them.”

☆☆☆

     The final two weeks went faster than they would have believed possible. The seven members of the new Centaur team worked themselves to exhaustion. Sometimes training singly and sometimes with others of their own kind, but mostly they were together as a team. Learning each others strengths and weaknesses. Learning to function together as a unit and getting to know each other as people. Thomas was distracted by thoughts of Lirenna, though, and of the strangers she’d be alone with, spending months of enforced intimacy with. That was how he and she had ended up taking the first oath, after all. He seriously doubted that they would have ended up as a couple otherwise.

     He spent every spare moment watching them, wanting to get a sense of whether they were up to the job of protecting her, and of whether they themselves could be trusted. Lirenna was easily the most beautiful woman in Redhill. Men looked at her appreciatively wherever she went and Thomas’s mind kept going to dark places, imagining her team in some patch of wilderness, miles away from civilization and her male teammates finally finding her beauty too much to resist. He had to keep reminding himself that she was a powerful wizard, an enchantress, and that they had just as much reason to fear her as the other way round.

     He asked everyone he met about them, starting conversations on any pretext and carefully steering the conversation towards Unicorn team, Lirenna’s team, wanting to know what kind of reputations they had. He tried to make it seem that the questions arose naturally as part of the conversation, but one day he found himself confronted in the corridor by a large, powerfully built mountain man with long, untidy hair and a thick, tangled beard that almost completely covered his face. He wore an animal skin around his shoulders, the length of its fur suggesting it came from a very large animal, and around his neck was a necklace of bear claws.

     “You want to know something about Grizzly Brown,” he said flatly, standing close to the wizard and backing him up against the wall, “you ask Grizzly Brown. All your questions, people think you know something about Grizzly Brown they don’t. People start talking about Grizzly Brown, and Grizzly Brown don’t like that. Grizzly Brown is honest, like the animals and the birds, and he won't have his reputation impugned by little wizard man.”

     “I’m sorry,” said Thomas nervously, feeling the words of defensive spells rising to the forefront of his mind. He forced them back down with an effort. He didn’t want this man angry with him, not if he was going to be one of Lirenna’s protectors. “I’m just scared, you see. I love her so much…”

     The man backed away a little, nodding to himself. “Grizzly Brown understands,” he said. “Grizzly Brown knows what it is to love a woman. Grizzly Brown thinks about his Hilda. Your shae girl has nothing to fear from Grizzly Brown. Grizzly Brown gives little wizard man his word.”

     “I believe you…”

     “Be quiet, little wizard man. When Grizzly Brown speaks, others listen. Grizzly Brown will look after your little shae girl. Grizzly Brown will keep her safe. If anyone wants to hurt your little shae girl he will have to get past Grizzly Brown first. Now little wizard man will rest easy and stop asking questions.”

     He then turned and strode off down the corridor, leaving the wizard staring anxiously after him. The mountain man was the man he was most worried about. He’d heard that the hardy folk who lived in the northern reaches of the Copper Mountains made a sport of wooing each others wives, thinking it great fun to successfully tempt them into their beds, and the betrothed of a wizard might be thought a great victory indeed.

     On the other hand, though, he’d also heard that they were unfailingly honest, that when one of them gave his word he would die before breaking it,. Also, everyone he’d asked had told him that Grizzly Brown was a good man; honest and trustworthy. He sighed as he turned and made his way back to his own quarters, knowing that he’d continue to worry even so. There was nothing he could do about it.

     It wasn’t until the day before they were due to leave that they finally learned the details of the missions they’d be sent on. Each of the seven teams currently undergoing training at Redhill was called in turn into one of the conference rooms and told in extreme confidence what part of the world they’d be going to and what they’d be expected to do there, following which they were warned not to discuss their missions with anyone else outside their teams, for reasons of security.

     “You’ll be going to the Overgreen Forest,” the Captain said when they were all seated and the door closed behind them.

     “The Overgreen Forest!” said Matthew excitedly. “That’s our home!”

     “Yes, that’s why I chose you for this mission, although you’ll mostly be working in the grasslands to the east. As you probably know, the trogs have engaged a Shadowarmy in the Endless Plains and have succeeded in holding them there for the past four weeks. However, the enemy are fighting furiously to break out. Even their rak General has been seen in the front line of combat, using all his wizardly and undead powers in battle."

     "If it's the same rak General who commanded the army destroyed by the Skorvosians, that red hooded guy, he's probably trying to redeem himself in the eyes of his superiors," speculated Thomas.

     "Indeed," agreed the Captain. "Those who've seen him in battle say he fights like a maniac, as if he's literally terrified of failure. Whatever the reason, the trogs say they're having a lot of trouble holding them. They can't stand against the rak and have to pull back whenever he appears, but for all his power he can only be in one place at a time. The trogs're paying a huge price in blood, but they say they can keep the Shads mired down for a long time yet, so long as nothing happens to tip the balance.

     "However, we have reports of another Shadowarmy emerging from the Shadow and making their way to reinforce the first. A large enough army that the trogs won't have a chance against them. The Shads'll break out, rout the trogs and be in Ilandia within a week. Your mission will be to help the trogs prevent the two armies from joining up. The trogs have already forced the reinforcements away from the path the first army left, so they can’t just follow it, but they’re sending out scouts in all directions in an attempt to find the first army. Your job will be to prevent that. You’ll do that by intercepting those scouts, killing them or leading them in the wrong direction. You might even find ways to lead the army itself in the wrong direction. Keep doing that until either the trogs succeed in destroying the first Shadowarmy or the Shads break out. You must also prevent them from entering the forest. That’s very important.

     "You will take flying carpets to the independent city of Basso, where you will report to a trog Commander called Grend Blackhelm. He’ll give you the details. Your detailed knowledge of the area will be useful and Jherek and Arroc will be your liaison with them."

     Arroc was frowning thoughtfully, though. “That land’s wide, flat and empty,” he said, stroking his trophy cords. “No landmarks, nothing ter tell you where you are. Easy ter see how the two shad armies can’t find each other, but it’ll make it just as hard for us. We could be hundreds of miles away from where we think we are.”

     “You don’t need to worry about that,” replied the Captain with a strange, secret smile. “We’ll be keeping track of exactly where everyone is, and we’ll keep you updated with regular position reports. You won’t get lost so long as you stay in the open grassland.”

     Naomi and the two trogs were astounded. “But how is that possible?” asked Jherek in disbelief. "If you’re using spotters, how do ye know they won’t lose track o’ their position?”

     “You don’t need to know that,” said the Captain with a warning glance at the Claimjumpers. Naomi saw that glance and frowned. “You’ll be given the information you need to accomplish your mission and no more.” He stood. “That’s all for now. Send the next team in on your way out.”

     They stood and left, thoughtful expressions on their faces as they digested all that they’d been told. “So the trogs are protecting Ilandia,” mused Thomas. “Good for them.”

     “The trogs are protecting themselves,” corrected Jherek. “Just like everyone else. Belthar is the greatest military force on the planet, not counting the Shadowhordes. If Belthar falls, we all fall, so by helping Belthar we’re helping ourselves. And Ilandia is a province of Belthar.” The wizard nodded in agreement.

     Naomi sidled up close to Matthew. “How do you suppose they can keep track of the enemy’s movements with such flawless accuracy?” she asked, staring directly into his eyes. She touched the back of his hand with her fingertips.

     “How should I know?” replied the young soldier, jerking back his hand as if stung. The guilty expression on his face and his involuntary ‘help me’ glance towards his brother was enough to tell all the world that he knew all too well, though. “I mean, why ask me? What makes you think I’d know a thing like that?”

     Shaun sighed with exasperation. “All right,” he admitted, coming to his brother’s rescue. “You’re right, we do know something, but we’re not allowed to tell anyone. We’d be hung, drawn and quartered for treason if we said a word. I’m sure you understand. Just telling you this much could get us into a hell of a lot of trouble.”

     “But we’re teammates!” protested the black girl angrily. “Surely we’re allowed to know.”

     “I’m sorry,” said the soldier sympathetically. “I’m sure there are things you’re not allowed to tell us about your own adventures. Please try to understand.”

     “I understand that you don’t trust me,” snapped Naomi, her green eyes flashing like brilliant emeralds.

     “Of course we don't,” replied Shaun. Naomi was taken aback by the bald statement and could only stare in shock. “We only met just a couple of weeks ago. You didn’t want to tell us that you were a shape changer because you didn’t know if you could trust us, so how can you expect us to trust you any more?”

     The black girl had no answer to that, and decided to sulk, tossing her long black hair over her shoulder and crossing her arms angrily.

     “Look," said Shaun with frustration, "we couldn’t tell you no matter how much we trusted you. If I trusted you as much as I trust Diana I still couldn’t tell you. I couldn’t tell Di if she didn’t already know.”

     The black girl remained stubbornly silent, however, and Diana put a gentle hand on Shaun’s arm, shaking her head slowly. Yes, thought Thomas. Naomi understood. The black girl understood about secrets. As Shaun himself had pointed out, she’d concealed the fact that she was a shape shifter all her life and still wasn’t ready to reveal how she’d come to worship the Goddess of Cats. Not the first choice of deity for a primate, you’d have thought. Yes, she understood secrets all right, and was just pretending to be hurt and offended in an attempt to wheedle the truth out of them.

     At least, Thomas hoped she was just pretending. After their relationship’s less than outstanding start, the last thing they needed was another source of conflict between them. And what about the trogs? The wizard risked a glance back at them. They’d been listening carefully to the whole exchange, but as usual there was no hint of what was going on behind the swaddling clothes that hid everything except their eyes.

     Thomas sighed heavily and prayed silently for more peace and understanding to come between them. Damn the woman, he thought. We don't need this. We don't need this at all.