"Prove what?" Karux asked.

"Prove you can change some part of the world around us with your craft."

Karux shot Netac a dark look, then looked around the room. Karux pointed at a group of spears leaning against the wall. "Someone bring me that spear."

With a glance at Labrose, one of the men got up from the table, retrieved the spear and held it out to Karux.

"That's good. Hold it there like that." Karux took a step back and began muttering the names of the elements. He waved his hands, making slow passes at the spear shaft prompting skeptical grins from the reavers.

"Yes, well that's all very impressive—" the arcanth said in an ironic tone.

"Ataeros!"

The spear before Karux quivered and short branching limbs shot out of the polished wood shaft, each branch bearing a single green leaf.

The spearman jerked his hand back, dropping the spear. His fellows leaped up with startled cries. The arcanth walked over to where the spear lay among the crushed rushes off the floor and nudged it with his boot.

Karux bent and picked it up.

The reavers gathered around to look at it and one of them tentatively touched a leaf. "It's real."

"It is." Karux handed it back to the man who had dropped it. The other reavers examined it closely.

"So, can you stop the blight?" Labrose asked.

"We're working on that," Karux said. "We can slow its approach and we can increase the crop yields of fields not within the blight."

"That's more than the Collective could offer," one of the reavers told Labrose.

"I heard the Collective offered to help you work your fields," Karux said.

"They did."

"And what did you say to their offer?"

The Arcanth gave him a shrewd look. "We told them we'd think about it."

"Did they say when they would return?"

"They said they would give us another harvest to think about it."

Karux nodded. "A wise man considers all options before making important decisions."

"And do you offer another option?"

"Yes." Karux gave a pointed look towards the leafy spear. "I can, by my arts, not only slow the spread of the blight, but I can speed the growth of your crops so that you can have an extra harvest in each year."

The Arcanth looked thoughtful.

"Did the Collective offer you a second harvest?" Karux asked.

"No, but they did offer me a larger one, and help to bring it in. They also offered me a safe place to store our grain, protected from the beasts."

"Which help, no doubt, you would have to feed in addition to the share they would take."

"Yes..." Labrose said uncertainly, as if he hadn't considered that.

"Did these men from the Collective say which city they were from?"

"Nur."

Karux thumped his staff on the ground. "By the mountain! Did they?"

"Yes. What of it?"

"Nur is at the center of the blight. The blight came from Nur."

"Are you saying the Collective is the cause of the blight?"

"No...not directly. The Oracle of Nur caused it."

Labrose took the leafy spear from one of his men and examined it. "Then why hasn't someone made him stop it."

"We killed him when his tireavs attacked our koria."

"His what attacked your koria?"

"His reavers, lots of spearmen, hundreds if not thousands of spearmen."

Labrose looked skeptical. "I suppose you didn't think to make him lift the curse before killing him?"

"He didn't give us the chance, but I don't think he had the power to undo the damage he caused."

Labrose shook his head. "We'd heard that some type of madness had seized the people up north and caused them to attack and kill each other like mad dogs."

Karux's face flushed, his voice fiercely steady and calm. "That madness was the n'kroi."

The reavers shuddered.

"The Oracle of Nur opened a gateway for the n'kroi. The n'kroi are the curse."

After a moment of thoughtful silence, Labrose said, "And you say your craft can keep the curse away?"

"It'll help."

In the end Labrose agreed to let them put the poles in his fields. Karux and his students stayed for nearly a fortnight working with the local men who cut and gathered the poles and helped carve them once they had been marked up. When they had finished, Karux, Garanth, Harkin and Corha left down a trail said to lead to the neighboring village of Korion-Diochis.

Garanth caught up to Karux as he stumped along the trail. "Do you think the Arcanth will hold to his agreement?"

"He better," Karux growled. "We just put a lot of work into protecting his fields."

"There was something about him I don't trust," Garanth said. "He always seemed to be looking for some angle or advantage."

"He did ask a lot of questions about the process," Karux mused. "It was almost like he thought he could learn to duplicate our work himself."

"I think you're being overly suspicious," Netac said. "He seemed to me to be a man looking at how to best care for his people."

"In his place, you would probably have agreed to give all your food to the Collective of Nur," Karux scoffed.

"Not all the food, but it sounded like they had some good ideas."

"Bah! I fear Amantis' sickness has outlived him. I hope we don't have to go back and cut it out."

"How can you say that? What sickness?"

Karux took a deep breath and held it thoughtfully. "There are some men who are not content to manage their own affairs, but will come to dominate others unless they themselves are first dominated. They say they are motivated purely for the desire to see to the welfare of others, but in truth, they seek only to feed their own lust for power."

"Sounds like someone I know," Netac muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"How can you tell," Garanth asked, "whether they are sincere or not?"

"They say they are acting for the good of others, but they don't seem to like people very much. They think others are too stupid to live without their help and behind their warm smiles is the sneer of contempt."

About an hour later, they arrived at Korion-Diochis. Like Korion-Amelein, the local inhabitants had constructed a wooden stockade around their village and appointed their own Arcanth named Z'taes.

Z'taes was a big friendly man with a somewhat boyish face despite his big bushy red-brown beard. He welcomed them, fed them and listened to their explanations of their craft with some interest. He had, from travelers, already heard about what they had done in Korion-Amelein, and said he would agree to share his harvest if their poles worked, but he was in greater need of reavers.

"It's all on account of the gob-bocari," he said during dinner, waving a chunk of bread around and spitting crumbs as he talked. He wasn't the type to allow eating to slow him down while talking.

"Gob-bocari?" Karux asked.

"The pig-mouths." Z'taes nodded. "The little green men, the ones who steal our food and animals and spoil everything else."

"We've heard mention of these creatures," Karux said, "But we've seen no sign of them."

"One moment." Z'taes got up and walked over to the door of the eating room and shouted at some children playing outside. "Ai! Sphar! Bring that ball in here." A boy ran up to the door and handed over a lumpy round leathery object. Z'taes took it and walked back and plopped it on the table. "This is a gobo head. Excuse its condition. The children like to use it as a ball."

Corha sucked in a sharp breath and looked away. Harkin looked uncertain as if he'd eaten something that didn't agree with him. Garanth had to lean around Netac to get a good view of the thing. It did look like a lumpy leather ball. The skin had been peeled from a gob-bocari's head and tanned, turning a dark greenish gray. It had little hair, two long pointed ears and his eyes and mouth and narrow nose had been sewn shut with coarse white thread. Z'taes reached into his tunic and pulled out a tooth hanging on a string about the size of his thumb. "Now, imagine a pair of these things sticking out from beneath his lower lip." He patted the sagging object and a trickle of sand ran out of its ear. "Mind you, it smells quite a bit better now than it did."

"So, this is a gob-bocari?" Karux asked.

"Nasty little things." Z'taes held his hand out at waist height. "Stand about this tall."

"Are they dangerous?" Corha asked.

"They can be," Z'taes said, "if you get too close. They have claws like a cat, tusks like a boar and a mean disposition. They'll usually stay away if they know they're being watched. We put fires and guards around the korion at night, but they still seem to find ways to sneak in—even into locked storage bins."

"I've seen these before, or creatures very much like them," Karux said.

Garanth gave him a questioning look. In all the years he'd traveled with Karux, he'd only heard the vaguest rumors of such things.

"When we invaded Nur, we found a series of stomas under Amantis' house. We dragged out several creatures that seemed neither human nor animal but some admixture of both. Some were scaly with large mouths full of teeth and some were like these." Karux gave a nod to the gobo head. After a moment of thought, he seemed to shake off the memory. "So, you need reavers to help drive them away?"

"Yes—in fact, let me show you what needs to be done. It's just outside." Z'taes rose. "Don't worry about the food. It'll still be here when we get back. Tircor!" he called out over his shoulder as he walked to the door. "Keep the dogs away from the table!"

Garanth rose with the others and followed them out of the stockade and around the top of the hill on which it rested.

Z'taes stopped and pointed at a range of nearby hills. "See those thicket-choked hollows between the hills? That's where the gob-bocari hide. Their numbers seem to be increasing and they are getting more aggressive. With enough men, we can flush them out into that valley below and eliminate them."

"I've got hundreds of reavers training in the north fighting angorym and drwg with the dwerka," Karux assured Z'taes. "I'm confident they can handle this."

Z'taes clapped him on the shoulder. "Excellent! How soon can you bring them?"

Karux thought for a moment. "Realistically, not before this time next year."

"I'll admit I was hoping for sooner, but we'll be grateful for what help we can get. We'll just have to endure until then." Z'taes smiled and clapped him on the shoulder again. "In the meantime, let us return to our meals and discuss your poles."

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

They stayed another fortnight in Korion-Diochis and were treated so well they were reluctant to leave. They visited eight more koria over the course of that spring and summer, each having heard of what Karux had done in Korion-Amelein and Korion-Diochis and each willing to let him practice his craft to increase their crops.

Garanth grew bored following Karux around. He contributed nothing but simple manual labor to the planting of the poles and was eager to get back to Har-Tor and the training of reavers. He knew, however, that these future allies would be needed and so he got to know the arcanths of each koria like Anankaes and Tekmos as well as the reavers they trusted most.

As the summer waned, Karux decided to revisit Korion-Amelein on the way home to see how their second crop was faring. The guards before Amelein's gates recognized them and let them through. They found Arcanth Labrose directing men in the construction of a new barn. "Ah, so you've returned."

Garanth watched his manner with suspicion. Labrose seemed friendly enough, though a bit distracted.

"We passed your fields on the way back. I see your second crop is greening up nicely," Karux said.

"Oh, Yes. It is doing that, but my farmers tell me the grain isn't developing as it should."

"It looks fine along the verge," Karux said. "The heads were so big they were snapping their stalks."

Labrose shook his head. "And that's the other thing. The growth is very uneven."

"Perhaps I should take a closer look," Karux suggested.

Labrose squirmed and waved away the suggestion. "There are still plenty of days of growing time left. I'm sure the rest will catch up. Indeed, we may have a challenge bringing in the whole harvest. You know how the rains can sometimes come in early and ruin much of a harvest."

"If you need help with the harvest, I can bring you men to help."

"No! Thank you. You've done so much for us already. I'm sure we can manage. If anything, the autumn rains will probably come late this year. I am only eager to honor our agreement—you've helped us greatly with your little wooden poles—though we must still sow and harvest and thresh... and there is the threat of the gob-bocari who steal and eat our grain and frequently ruin the rest by urinating and defecating in the storage bins..."

Karux smiled. "Well that, at least, I know I can help with. We already have agreements with the other koria to bring a few hundred spears from the north to help drive out the gob-bocari. It would be no trouble at all to swing by here and drive out the local gobos, especially since we'll need to collect our share of the harvest anyway."

Labrose's smile froze in an awkward grimace. "That would be great. Just great."

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

Garanth woke to Karux shaking him early the next morning. "What?"

"Get up. We're leaving."

Garanth groaned as he rose. "Why so early? Is something wrong?"

"I hope not, but I fear there may be."

Garanth grabbed his spear. "Labrose isn't up to something is he?"

"No. Well, at least not right now. No, I want to go to Nur on the way home and see this Collective first hand. However I don't want to spend the night there, so we have to leave early."

Garanth put down his spear and pulled on his trousers.

"Wake up the others," Karux said. "I'll go collect Corha."

As Karux left, Garanth turned to Netac who had slept on the pallet next to him, kneeing him in the small of the back and stealing his blanket all night. He prodded him in the butt with the toe of his boot.

"Leave off," Netac mumbled.

Garanth prodded him again.

"Quit it!" Netac kicked out.

"What's going on?" Harkin groaned and propped himself up on one elbow."

"We're leaving. Going to Nur. Going to give the Collective a look over."

"Why so early?" Harkin asked.

"To give us enough time to get there, look things over and leave before dark."

Labrose almost seemed relieved to see them go, giving them packets of bread and cheese, neither of which were too fresh, and wishing them safe travels.

They headed straight into the heart of the cursed lands, passing dead fields and entire koria abandoned to the elements. Garanth scanned the horizon and every dead thicket they passed for movement. He didn't carry his spear on his shoulder as he often did while traveling, for fear some starved beast or some gang of gob-bocari should suddenly leap out and attack them.

Leaving the roads and walking due west, they came to the river Pardos in a few hours. Here, at least, were some signs of life. As they followed the river road north to Nur, they passed a series of small koria clinging to existence by fishing and trade. Garanth could see small vegetable gardens among the houses, but the plants looked withered and spotted with unhealthy colors.

"Void take it!" Karux swore and stopped on the road just as the bridge had come into sight. "We're going to need something for the toll."

Garanth exchanged looks with the other students. He knew he wasn't carrying anything of value except his weapons and he wasn't giving them up.

Karux stood with his eyes closed and turned in a slow circle. Having turned one-hundred eighty degrees, he opened his eyes and pointed down river at a tree on the riverbank they had passed about one hundred yards black. "There, underneath a bush just beyond that tree, you'll find three rabbits." Karux turned to Garanth. "Go collect them."

Puzzled, Garanth walked back to the tree and looked under a bush.

"Not that one!" Karux, gesturing for him to move down stream. "The next one."

Garanth found the bush and looked under it. A rabbit lay still with its nose between its paws as if asleep. He grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and dragged the limp form out. It was not breathing, but it was still warm. It could only have died moments ago. With a nagging feeling of unease, he pulled out its mate and a nearly full-grown adolescent.

Had Karux used his craft to snuff out their lives? If he could do this to rabbits, what of men? His cutting up their wolf attackers had come as a surprise not only to him but Karux's students. It seems there was much about his craft he was not telling anyone. He spoke often of the threats ahead and what everyone else must do to meet them, but never of what he was doing. What tricks was he holding back?

"Hurry up!" Karux called out.

"One moment!" Finding it too difficult to juggle all three and his spear, Garanth pulled a length of cord from his belt pouch and hung each by a hind leg from his spear. He walked back with his spear on his shoulder.

The bridge crossing the Pardos at this point was a pontoon affair. The middle half consisted of two movable sections attached by rope hinges. When Karux and his students arrived, the two middle sections had been pulled back by long cables, their ends pointing upstream so river traffic could float past.

"I suppose you're wanting to cross," said a burly old man, stepping out of a small stone house at the end of the bridge.

"Yes, bridge-keeper. We are," Karux said.

"And what do you have for the toll?"

Garanth swung the spear around and dangled the rabbits before his nose.

The bridge-keeper looked nervously at the spear. "Just the rabbits, then?"

"That should be enough." Karux smiled grimly.

"For the five of you?"

"It's not fish."

The bridge-keeper gave a dispirited nod. "You're lucky there's so little traffic these days. There was a time it would have cost each of you half a goat to cross."

"Must be why we used to always cross further north," Karux muttered as the old man walked over and hitched a donkey to a lever attached to a wheel. A length of cable looped around a distant pole and attached to an end of an open section of the bridge.

The old man rang a bell until his counterpart across the river manned his own winch. He led the donkey in a circle, turning the wheel. The cables grew slack and the river current pushed the two floating pieces of bridge together.

The bridge sections shifted and bobbed under their feet as they crossed, making Garanth nervous. The others also tred cautiously, staying away from the upstream side where waves would splash against the timbers and send up cold sprays of water.

Karux gave the bridge-keeper on the far side a friendly nod, but the keeper only returned a frowning grimace as he turned his donkey around and re-hitched him to the wheel on his end.

Garanth had always thought N'shia-Potoma was a large city. It paled in comparison to Nur. When he first set eyes on it, he wasn't entirely sure what he was looking at. Situated where two rivers joined, Nur was a confused jumble of buildings that seemed to pile up like a mound of scree at the foot of the western spur of the Pelahi mountains. Thousands of people lived there. The smoke of their cook fires rose up in so many streamers that the whole city seemed to smolder.

This is the place, Garanth thought. The place where my parents lived, the place where I was born, the place where my father went mad in his grasping for power and where he killed my mother. Somewhere in that confused jumble of buildings, her body still lies buried.

Garanth eyed the line of donkeys bringing food and timber and other supplies into the city and tried to convince himself that all this was real—that the city was a physical connection between himself and his parents—but it still seemed like an old story told about someone else.

The men leading the donkeys all wore leather armor and carried spears. Garanth didn't see anyone he thought of as a normal merchant and he didn't see a single woman or child.

Karux got in line and the five of them waited their turn to enter the city, attracting curious looks from the men leading the animal trains. The guards had a barrier across the entrance and, though they seemed to know the men bringing in the supplies, they questioned them suspiciously even going so far as to inspect the donkeys' loads, taking as much time as they liked.

"What's going on here?" Harkin muttered to Garanth.

"I don't know. They don't seem very friendly," Garanth said.

"They seem to be looking for something," Corha suggested. "I wonder what?"

As they neared the entrance, the guards took notice, passing through the next several supply trains with only cursory inspections. When Karux approached the barrier, the guards' leader stepped in front of him, as if the wooden barrier was too good for the likes of these five. "Who are you and where are you from?"

"My name is Karux."

The guard's eyes narrowed. "And where are you from?"

"Har-Tor."

"Don't move!" The guard lowered his spear and aimed its long bronze point at Karux's heart.