[puffyn]

---- Arcoscephale, Turn 18 ----

Early fall.

The other night I dreamt of home. It was early evening on the docks, and I was watching the sails turn orange. A cool breeze blew, carrying the smell of distant rain, and I turned slightly to see Thymbre standing next to me. I knew that she had actually never been to Pagasae, having left her tiny mountainous village as a small child to serve in the temple at Delphi, and then to join the great campaign, but we stood together and watched the ships glow for a while, then fade to dark. There was no moon that evening, and gradually everything disappeared except for the distant stars. She never spoke.

When I awoke, it was hot and muggy, as it has been every morning for months, and swamp-stench filled the air, along with the sounds of soldiers banging out their armor and preparing for battle. Thymbre was gone, of course, further from reach even than distant Pagasae which I doubt I shall ever see again. Perhaps while I have been away fighting wars in lands I care nothing for it too has disappeared forever, and that is why I dreamt of them both.

The battle that morning reminded me so much of that other terrible day of cold, hard death: fearless women with spears, some mounted upon strange beasts (lizards this time; I am getting so sick of swamps and their lizards and snakes and other scaly beasts), led by sorceresses who dabbled in unnatural forces, and a sickly evil feeling to the land. Our few light troops fell almost at once to the advancing lizard-warriors, or scattered, and the first volleys between the magicians on both sides traded ineffectual beams of light for useless sparks of fire, as a dozen riders bore down upon us. I felt an odd queasy sensation, as if the world were about to turn very wrong again.

But my silver shields have been through much, and were not about to fail this time; the death of some only emboldened the rest to fight harder. I had joined my men at this point (I could not stand at the rear, not this time), and I saw many strange things brought against us, like vines rising from the ground to entangle our feet. But what really made my blood boil was when I heard the cries of the small figures in white at the far end of the battle field, and saw the bloody knives being taken to them, and I realized then what great evil I had been sensing. At this point, Amshula unexpectedly did something incredibly useful, killing several enemy foot soldiers with a giant ball of flame, and I silently apologized for wishing such a bloody fate upon her.

It was a bloody battle -- over half of my silver shields lay dead on the ground -- but we prevailed, and the enemy turned and fled. I made sure that neither of the evil women in charge left that field, though sadly many of the innocent sacrificial victims were also killed in the retreat. The rest begged us to kill them, claiming that if we let them go they would only be caught again by the dread kingdom to the north, where even more unspeakably evil things would be done to them. I plan to send them back toward Thymbre's temple, where perhaps they will have a chance to heal.

When I saw Amshula afterwards, I thanked her and her brother for helping in the fight, particularly for stunning the fleeing enemy mages so that we could catch up with them, and gave her permission to go off and look for her magic sites (as if forbidding her would have stopped her, but it felt good to pretend). She replied, cryptically, "I was only following what is written." When I looked at her quizzically, she said, "Try reading your book for a change, perhaps it will keep you from being so confused all the time," and strode off.

The only book I had was the silly one Thymbre had given me, The Collected Sayings of Pandokos the Prophet... but sure enough, on page 3, it contained a conversation I had had with my quartermaster in a tavern in Oast Hills years ago. I had said -- sorry, let me just quote it here, for I am, if anything, even more confused:

"And Pandokos of the odd smell of horse spoke thusly, saying: 'And you know what would be great? If giant balls of flame poured down from the sky and killed everyone, so we didn't have to risk getting our armor dented.' And the men did laugh, but Balachandra, first of the wise, came to the elders, and said: 'Let us make it so.' And they set to work..."

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