It took Karux several minutes to figure out what was wrong. A complex shape had been added to his students' drinking cups. He wasn't entirely sure what it was, but it seemed to make the alcohol in their drinks more potent. Karux searched Garanth's patterns, attaching negating schemas to the offending shapes and activated them. The schemas he used included the elements of the Void which he hated to call this close to the curse's source. Every time he did, he thought he heard evil laughter and felt a surge of interest he'd rather avoid.

"Unh! What?" Garanth roused and looked around.

"Shhh!" Karux hissed and focused on Netac's patterns.

"What's going on?"

"Shhh! I'm concentrating."

"Where's Corha!"

Karux woke Netac. "You've all been poisoned to make you sleep. Now please be quiet while I wake Harkin."

Netac groaned and sat up as Karux revived Harkin.

"But where's Corha?" Garanth asked again.

"I don't know. I can only assume the elders have taken her."

Netac clutched his forehead in pain. "But why?"

"Either to ensure my cooperation or perhaps to steal the secrets of my craft from her."

Garanth found his sword and drew it. "We have to get her,"

"And how are you going to do that?" Netac laughed mockingly. "Fight the whole city with your sword?"

"If necessary."

Netac rose. "Face it! We don't know where she is and we're outnumbered thousands to one. We'll be lucky if we can sneak out of here. We couldn't afford to go get her even if we knew where she is."

"Ah! So you admit the people of Nur are not so sweet and innocent after all?" Harkin scoffed.

Garanth loomed over Netac, his face growing red. "We can't leave her behind."

Netac rose from his chair, hands clenched. "You need to be realistic and face facts,"

"Will you all shut up?" Karux snapped. "Do you think after all this time I wouldn't know the shapes of my students? Give me a moment of peace and I'll find her."

Garanth and Netac glared at each silently while Harkin looked on in amusement.

"I found her," Karux said. "She's only a few blocks away and she only has one person guarding her. When it gets dark enough, we can go get her, but first we have to decide what to do with our own guard."

"Where are the nec'ha?" Harkin asked.

"I didn't see them in the house," Karux said. "I assume, after poisoning you, they didn't feel their services would be required."

Garanth marched toward the door. "I guess I'll have to take care of the guard, then."

"Not yet." Karux said. "First, Harkin and Netac, you go tear up some bedding into strips we can use to tie the guard up."

"Tie up?" Garanth asked.

Karux gave him a look. "You've never had to kill anyone; don't be so eager to do so now."

"But they have Corha!"

"And we will deal with that. Trust me. Someone's lifeblood is a burden you don't want to be eager to bear. Go ask Macander if you don't believe me."

Netac and Harkin set off to the side rooms and came back a few minutes later, after many ripping sounds, with a roughly braided rope of torn cloth. Karux positioned Garanth near the door, but out of sight, then he opened it and leaned out to talk to the guard. "Excuse me. Could you help me? I'm afraid my students have had a little too much to drink."

The guard stepped inside and Garanth put the point of his sword to his throat. The guard clearly seemed to understand the nature of the weapon in his hand. Karux shut the door. "Good. Now let me tie him up. I doubt you city boys could make a knot to save your life...and these just might."

"You don't want to do this," the guard said as they forced him to the floor with his hands behind his back.

"Oh? And why not?" Karux asked.

"You'll go to feed the pigs if they catch you, and they may not kill you first."

"Well they do have to first catch us," Karux said.

The guard took a deep breath as if preparing to shout, but Garanth put the point of his sword to his throat and pressed. "And you're certain to die if we get caught."

Seeing the ignorant, youthful blood-lust on Garanth's face, Karux gave him a disapproving look. "Shove a rag in his mouth." He finished tying the guard's hands and feet and tied a strip across his mouth. When he'd finished, he went to the door and looked out. "I think it is almost dark enough.

The guard began thumping around on the floor, struggling against his bonds.

"Put him in the bedroom and close the door," Karux said. "And bring the rest of that rope."

Soon all four stood crouched at the door. "Follow me and keep quiet." Karux stepped out into the shadows. The others scurried along behind him in a half crouch. "Stand up and act like you belong here," Karux hissed. He stood up even straighter and threw out his chest as if daring anyone to challenge his right to walk the streets at night.

Fortunately, Corha's guard was not standing outside. Karux checked her schemas to make sure she was not being abused, but the guard was female and was sitting and watching her. Karux gestured for Garanth to draw his sword and then knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" The guard rose and approached the door.

"It's me," Karux answered.

The guard lifted the door latch. "I didn't think you'd—"

Garanth put his sword's point to her throat and backed her into the room. The other's followed closing the door behind them.

Corha lay bound and gagged on a nearby cot.

"Ah, look!" Harkin said. "We brought our own bonds for nothing."

"Netac—" Karux hadn't finished his statement before Garanth raced over and began untying her.

With the sword removed, the guard started to scream. Karux clapped a hand over her mouth and she bit down on it. He thumped her in the back of the head with the end of his staff and she dropped to the ground groaning. "Tie her up," he growled, putting the end of his staff to her larynx and leaning on it enough to keep her quiet. He shook his aching hand. A full set of bite marks were imprinted in the skin.

"Serves her right." Corha kicked her in the side as the bound her. "They had to gag me to keep me from screaming when I awoke and they weren't any too gentle about it either."

"Are you hurt?" Garanth asked.

"No. Thank you. Just a little bruised." Corha kicked the woman again and she groaned.

"Now what do we do?" Netac asked.

"We leave. Quickly and quietly," Karux said.

They walked out into the night, taking small side paths and staying near the city walls. When did every city and village start building walls around themselves? Karux wondered as they paused in the shadows and inspected yet another well-guarded and well-lit gate.

"We may need a diversion," Garanth whispered. "If we can just make it past the gate, we might be able to lose them in the darkness beyond."

"And ourselves," Karux grumbled. "There's one more gate for us to try. It's the one the tireavs came through when we attacked." They moved on and came to something that looked like a stone monument in the middle of a small square. Beyond it lay a gate that had been boarded up.

"I think we have to go back," Netac suggested. "That's definitely sealed."

"Hush!" Karux shifted his perceptions into the world of shapes. The original picket barrier had been replaced by a wall of wood but they had used the original posts and nailed boards across the gate itself. What a waste, Karux thought as he attached severing schemas on a score of nails, ignoring the presence of spiritual forces as he activated them. "Let's hurry, before we're noticed."

"Hurry where?" Garanth asked.

Karux had already darted out into the square.

"Ai! Who are you?" a voice called out.

Karux raced to the gate and pulled. The gate creaked open, alternating rows of boards swinging away from the wall with the gate where he had severed the nails. "Through! Now! And don't look back"

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" a man shouted as Karux's four students ducked through.

Karux called up a schema he had prepared as soon as it got dark. He closed his eyes and collapsed it. A bright flash of light nearly blinded him through his eyelids. Their pursuer cried out in surprise. He ducked through the gate and closed it behind him.

"What was that?" Harkin exclaimed. "It was as if lightning lit up the whole city, but there was no thunder!"

"Just a little something to delay pursuit. Now let's get moving."

They hurried along the old river road, heading north.

<====|==|====>

The flight from Nur was a frantic stumble in the dark. The overcast sky soaked up most of the light from the moons and diffused the remainder into a shadowy haze that obscured what little details they might otherwise have seen. Garanth was still blinking spots from his eyes as he fled with Karux, Netac, Harkin and Corha down the narrow, rocky, river road that wound up and down eroded embankments and threaded between the storm-tossed trees and boulders littering the river's side. Corha took Garanth's hand after tripping and falling on both knees. They paused long enough to make sure she could still walk, frantically listening for sounds of pursuit in the distance. Harkin thought he heard distant shouts, but Karux merely urged them on down the trail.

After a couple of hours, they made it to a crossing south of Korion Iscuron, but the korion was on the wrong side of the river.

"What do we do now?" Netac asked. "I suspect we could shout until sunup, but I doubt the ferryman will even wake, much less get out of bed."

"Give me a moment," Karux said.

They stood at the end of the short landing. Garanth gripped Corha's hand, still burning with indignation at Netac's casual disregard for her. She leaned against him as they waited in the cool damp of the predawn night.

"Did you hear that?" Harkin rasped.

"Quiet," Karux snapped.

A few seconds later, The clear sound of water lapping on wood came from somewhere out on the river. "I think someone is out there," Garanth warned.

"Hush!" Karux said.

The four students peered out over the water into the gloom from which the strange splashing sounds seemed to approach. Corha gasped. Something low and dark appeared on the water gliding smoothly toward them.

As they watched in disbelief, an unmanned raft, trailing a frayed piece of rope through the water, slid up to the landing and glided to a stop against the river pilings.

Karux stepped onto its tar-soaked planks. "Get on, quickly."

Netac, Harking and Garanth followed. Corha clung to Garanth's hand as she stepped carefully onto the raft.

"Does anyone know how to navigate this?" Harkin asked.

"Do you think it matters?" Netac replied sarcastically.

Karux stood at the edge of the raft, facing the river. After a moment of silent contemplation, they drifted away from the landing. Corha gave a slight gasp as it started to move, then all reference points were lost in the darkness. The only sense of movement came from waves of river water splashing against the raft. They seemed frozen in the darkness in the middle of the river.

"Are we even moving?" Harkin complained.

"Why don't you try using your perception," Netac suggested.

"Oh, yes," Corha said and everyone grew quite on the barge.

Garanth had stared into the dark haze until his eyes watered, attempting to make out the far shore. He tried to remember how he had previously managed to shift his perceptions into the world of shapes. Confident that the shapes for water were all around him, he began to focus on them. He remembered how the symbols had leaped up into three dimensions once he learned to see them, how they were both like and unlike the shadows he had memorized. He relaxed his focus and the symbols appeared all around him. He resisted the urge to cheer his own success. If Karux knew, he might also discover that Eiraena had given him a sliver of cor-dwna, and that he had swallowed it.

Peering through the haze of symbols, Garanth watched the far shore grow steadily nearer. When, at last, it drifted smoothly up to the far landing, Karux got off and rejoined the broken ends of the rope.

"Are we staying here?" Harkin asked.

"No. We'll continue north. I'd like to get out of the blighted area."

"We're not staying at Iscuron are we?" Netac asked with a note of dread. He didn't sound too eager to revisit his family.

"Actually, no. We'll cross back over to the west once we get around the foothills. I thought we'd go and see a friend of mine."

"Who?" Netac asked.

"My cousin Macander."

"Uncle Mac?" Garanth asked.

Karux gave him an irritated scowl.

Despite being back on land, Corha seemed content to hold Garanth's hand.

They made it to Kerwyn's Hill a few hours before dawn and surprised a man guarding the gate to the village.

"Whoa! I didn't see you come up the hill."

"Yes, well, It's been a long night," Karux offered by way of explanation. "My companions are not feeling particularly talkative."

"Who are you?"

"I am Karux."

"Karux? The Oracle? Macander's cousin?"

"I suppose he talks about me?"

"Surprisingly little, actually. I mean, he's said one or two things about life up north, but he doesn't actually like to talk about his past and he won't discuss the fight with Nur at all."

"Do you mind if we enter? I'd like to see him."

"No! Not at all. Come in." The guard threw back the gate, little more than a section of pickets to keep animals in and predators out, and stood aside as the five of them dragged themselves through. "His house is the fourth one on the right."

They found his house and paused outside Macander's door. "Do we dare wake him at this hour?" Garanth asked. "He's got a small child."

"Hopefully he's a light sleeper," Karux tapped gently on his door. They waited a moment and got no response, not even the sound of movement within. Karux tapped again a little louder. "Ai. Mac, open up," Karux called out softly, tapping again on the door.

<====|==|====>

Macander woke as someone tapped on his door. He feared it was Bicor telling him the creatures had returned to harass his animals and asking him to help drive them off. His reputation as a warrior in the struggle with Nur had left everyone thinking he was a fearless warrior who could kill anything. Hi refusal to talk about his experiences seemed to have only grown his whispered legends.

The tapping came again. Reavkin stirred and cried out in his sleep. Much more of this and the boy would wake and, given the late hour, probably not go back to sleep again. He reluctantly left Tokarha's warm side. She rolled onto her back with a satisfied sigh, claiming the rest of the bed. He fumbled for a pair of trousers and rose, hopping on one foot as he tried to force the other through a twisted leg.

He stumbled to the door, found the latch, and opened it with a family-awakening creak. "Who's there?" His voice was still thick with sleep.

"Is this how you greet family?

The voice sounded familiar. It took him a moment to recognize it. "Karux?"

"Yes."

"It is you!" Macander stepped outside and threw his arms around Karux. "I am glad you've come, but what are you doing here?" He turned and noticed Garanth standing next to him and flung an arm around him. "I see you finally decided to bring the boy. Excellent! We've been looking forward to having him."

"I also brought a few others." Karux chuckled. "These are my students, Netac, Harkin and Corha."

Macander eyed them, noticing that all of them were about Garanth's age or slightly older. "I see you've been busy. Come inside!"

They went inside and Karux, Garanth and Macander, with the occasional help of the others, shared the details of everything that had happened since his last visit to Har-Tor. They tried to be quiet, but of course Tokarha woke and, a little while later, Reavkin awoke hungry. At that point there was no reason to think anyone was going to sleep that day and the cook fire was stoked up, a pot of chaia was started and Tokarha started cooking breakfast.

"Where is Eiraena?" Macander asked.

"She's with Jomel's widow," Karux said. "We've been doing a lot of traveling and she doesn't handle long distances well."

"What have you been doing?"

Karux told him of the spreading blight, their decision to recruit the koria of the south, the appearance of the gob-bocari and, finally, their adventures in Nur. As he spoke, a familiar sense of dread began to steal over Macander. He knew Karux's obsessions and knew Karux would not have come by without a reason—and that reason was him.

Macander nodded as Karux's spoke. "I'm not surprised they are up to their old schemes. We had a visit from this so-called Collective ourselves. They tried to bribe Shihar into giving them our food in exchange for vague promises of being taken care of by their Collective."

"I take it he was not fooled?"

"No. The promise of work tomorrow in exchange for giving food today is not a thing to appeal to him."

"I'm certain we will see them again," Karux said. "Amantis' madness lives on in Nur,"

"It cannot last," Macander said. "That sort of madness consumes itself."

Karux nodded. "Agreed, but a lot of innocent people will die in the process. And then there are the gob-bocari..."

"But those creatures are little more than a nuisance."

"Now. But as their numbers increase, they will get more aggressive. If some madman could figure out a way to harness that raw hunger, he could call down a pestilence that could consume every korion on the face of the world."

Macander shook his head. It was just like before, this growing sense of doom. He almost wondered if Karux's fear had found a way to take solid form. That he was usually right about these things only made it worse. "I am beginning to remember why I sought out the quiet life of a farmer. I cannot bear to think on such things."

"Closing your eyes will not make them go away."

The last comment stung his pride. Back when the blight had first appeared, they had seen several entire koria die because their leaders had been unable to imagine the threats of which Karux had warned them. In the end they had seemed sad and helpless men whose people suffered from their lack of vision. Macander would have never thought of himself as being in the same category as such men. Tears came involuntarily to his eyes. "These threats are all beyond me. What else would you have me do?"

Karux clapped a hand to his shoulder and gave him a gentle shake. "I have thousands of trained men up north tending fields, waiting to be called into action. We are going back next spring to begin training the men of the south. We can raise a force strong enough to deal with the gob-bocari, Nur and anything else that would threaten us, but I cannot do it alone."

Macander shook his head. "Don't even ask me." But he knew Karux would.

"I need leaders. I need experienced men to guide the tireavs. I want to put you in charge of the forces of the south, to help prepare them for the struggle ahead."

If he searched his feelings, he knew he'd find a restless part of himself wanting to jump at the chance, a part that saw combat as a personal challenge and men as objects against which to test himself. Macander noticed Tokarha's distressed expression. He had worked too hard to build this life. He had taken a vow; he had an obligation to his wife and Reavkin. He shook his head. "You'll have to ask another. I cannot do it."

Karux sighed. "If you will not do it, I know of no one else who can."

Reavkin stood beside Macander's chair and patted him on the leg. "Adra? Is Adra sad?"

Macander forced himself to smile at his son. How to explain that by taking up the spear he may be forced to kill many people, but by refusing he may kill even more? "Maybe just a little."

"You must work," Reavkin commanded. "Work makes you feel better."

Macander chuckled. He had always told his son that work cured all ills of the spirit. He glanced at Karux's grim expression his mirth died quickly. There was one who had never found a cure for his broken spirit in work. "I miss Theris," Macander said abruptly.

"I do too," Karux said softly.

They both stared silently into the past. Except for the battle at Korion-Tamia, Macander had not seen his brother since Theris' family had been killed. In that last encounter, Theris had been strangely transformed into an almost inhuman force.

"Did you know I offered him power over the spirits of the land?" Karux asked. "I offered him the power of life and death over the land itself and every living thing on it."

"You're mad! You don't have that power to give."

"I was offered it," Karux said with a curiously knowing look that Macander had seen often in their youth, usually just before Karux was about to win a bet or beat him in a challenge.

"By whom?"

"By the n'phesh, the spirits of the land."

"You're joking!" But, of course, he knew Karux wouldn't be. It wasn't the sort of thing he took humor in.

"Not at all. The n'phesh are being consumed by Amantis' presumption. The land is dying and is seeking help from any who might be able to hear their call."

"And so they offered you that power—yet you refused it—why?"

"The price was too high. One would have to give up their humanity and become like the n'phesh in order to help them."

"Why would you ask this of Theris?"

"Of us all, he was the most moral. He seemed least likely to abuse that power if he held it."

"And so you—wait—you asked after his family was killed, didn't you?"

Karux hesitated. "I did."

A dark suspicion fell on Macander that made him sick to his stomach. "You rotten, stinking son of the pit! How could you? To your own cousin!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Karux said, though he sounded nervous and a little defensive.

"You knew, didn't you? You had a vision or something, but you knew his family was going to be slaughtered and you did nothing!"

"I didn't—"

Reavkin began to cry.

"You're scaring your son," Tokarha hissed. She scooped him into her arms and took him outside.

Chagrined, Macander forcefully calmed himself, though the anger burned even hotter.

"I didn't know for certain," Karux said quietly. He stared down at his feet, leaning on his staff even while he sat in his chair. "I saw only death all around me. If I had known in advance of a way to save him, you know that I would have..."

Macander glared at him. He wasn't so certain of that. Karux had always been obsessively focused on his mission to save the tribes of men. If by sacrificing a few he could save the entire world, Macander wasn't sure if even family blood would stop him. "Instead of his grief driving him to your purpose, his grief drove him mad."

Macander stared at Karux. Was that grief or guilt on his face?