Excerpt: A Prelude to War

Tayan was walking along a small dirt road. It was not the kind of road a large delegation that includes a wizard would take. And yet the wizard was on this road. The wizard was with no more than a handful of people. Well, Tayan's initial fear proved ungrounded, this would not turn out to be a large and pompious delegation sent by one of the three other countries of the bond.

However, only a handful of men at most would open up a lot of other possibilities, most even more frightening than just a visiting delegation. How about a delegation that had been attacked by a band of rogues, or a delegation that got word of their mission rather late and thus had to be both organised quickly and be able to move quickly. Or perhaps the wizard had not taken anybody with him to make sure we knew his threat were merely politcal, not military. Maybe it was a wizard running from his country because of a revolutionary movement which had overthrown the government.

"Stop. I am getting way ahead of myself" Tayan muttered to himself. It could simply be a wandering wizard. That wouldn't be a much better case, though, there are quite a few wandering wizards that would be a pain to have around when Zonnziat was not in the country, let alone when he is. Besides, wandering wizards rarely make such beacons out of themselves. The only logical conclusion was a wizard from one of the neighbohrs who for one reason or another was traveling lightly.

Either, way he was getting closer. It would take just moments until he would be able to see him coming past that corner three hundred meters in the distance. There he was. Tayan was taken aback, this was something he had not considered at all: coming past the corner was a lone wizardess.

****

"Just to be sure I will remember correctly, you take a right turn here and go to Andonn, while I continue along this road. As soon as there's a path to the left, I take it and I should be at the quarry in say two hundred meters. Thanks for the ride." Perhaps Gene should give the man some money for the trouble - it sure would fit his character.

However, Yagun was not going to. The man had kept his eye on him eye on him the whole trip, not allowing him to find out anything about the wagon. And he hadn't been very talkative either. It had taken considerable effort just to pry loose that he was headed for Andonn. No, this man was not going to tell him anything, nor was he going to let him discover anything. There was only one solution.

The horseman nodded, "yeah".

Well, he didn't look like he was at all concerned with getting some change from this rich man. Of course he was not, he had much more important things on his mind. The only reason he had taken Gene with him was not to arouse suspicion.

The wagon grinded to a halt at the crossroad. Gene got off and thanked the man once again. Then he walked a few dozen meter - which was no more than Yagun's own way of not looking suspicious. He waited until he could hardly hear the horses. Then he disappeared between the large rock along the roadside. Moments later he apeared again, no longer wearing his black clothes. Now he looked like a common traveler, which was quite a change from the rich man he had been before.

"Much better" Yagun said to himself. "Now let's see, taking this road is only logical if you are going to either Andonn or Rimdonn. I bet he's going to Rimdonn."