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been attacked. “Move these people to pincer the group dropping off here. We’ll take more prisoners. Tell Yang-chu to hold his position. I want to see what he’s got.”
    Yang-chu’s group had received the most attention. The slope below his perimeter was littered with bodies. “They took some of their fallen with them,” the Tervola told Shih-ka’i. “As many as they could carry.”
    Shih-ka’i looked across the desert. Among the dust devils he could see a cloud raised by the retreating enemy. “Any wizardry used?”
    “Neither by us nor them, Lord.”
    “Good.” He watched the dust. Where could they have come from? How could people exist in this? He glanced at the bodies, quickly averted his gaze. He was not accustomed to seeing the aftermath of battles.
    The corpses were of men who had been well-fed, well-clad, and well-armed. “Yang-chu.” He indicated the dead. “Collect them. Strip them. Keep each man’s things separate. Send the bundles through to the fortress.” He summoned his will, looked into a few lifeless faces. They told him very little. All dead men had the same message for the living. It was a message Lord Ssu-ma did not want to hear.
    They were a curious breed. Both kinds. Shih-ka’i had never seen their like before. But how were they so different?
    He shrugged. The legion’s surgeons would dissect them and let him know.
    He took a last look at the dust cloud. It was moving straight out the line he had drawn on the map. He returned to the fortress.
    Tasi-feng greeted him with, “Lord, Hsu Shen says there were soldiers of the empire in the band that attacked him.
    “Ours?”
    “They wore our armor. Their badges were of the Seventeenth.”
    “Your missing men?”
    “Perhaps. I told him to keep it quiet till we can explain it.”
    “Good. Shift those two intercept groups around. Tell them to double-time and get into position to stop that party. Tell Hsu Shen to go after them and resume contact. I’ll want a portal open out there when our people are in position. I want to see this myself.”
    “As you will, Lord.”
    Shih-ka’i observed while the legion’s Candidates went through the clothing and effects recovered from the enemy dead. Each man had borne much of what a soldier could be expected to carry: the tools of his trade and a few personal items that set him off from a thousand more just like him. The things gave no clues. Shih-ka’i examined the lettering on an old coin. He had not seen its like before. “What would you say this head portrays?” he asked one of the Candidates.
    “Some sort of fabulous monster, Lord?”
    “Perhaps.” When he looked directly at it, Shih-ka’i felt an increase in his awareness of the existence of something in the east.
    Tasi-feng appeared. “Lord, there seems to have been a continuous, low-grade emanation of the Power since some time before the first attack. The source appears to be near the heart of your circle.”
    “So.” Shih-ka’i reflected momentarily. “Let’s take no chances. Establish portals connecting us with the other legions. One cohort each to be ready for immediate transfer here.”
    “Lord, we’re already straining ourselves with the portals we... As you will, Lord.”
    “Yes. The remainder of each legion is to be placed on first alert. Begin assembling a package that can be sent to Lord Kuo instantly should anything dire happen.”
    “Lord? You think there’s that much danger?”
    “No. But I don’t believe in leaving anything to chance. Keep the package at a portal. Update it continuously.”
    “As you will, Lord.”
    “Also, I want a battery of ballistae readied for long-range work. Let the Candidates handle it. Start now. It’ll take them several hours to prepare all the spells.”
    “Accuracy or destruction, Lord?”
    “Destruction.”
    Shih-ka’i went to the room where the legion’s surgeons were at work. One paused to say, “There’s something strange here, Lord. We can’t be sure, what with