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was beginning to believe the general doubted the wizard’s own prowess and ability. The nightmare sensed her masters displeasure and stomped the ground with her right front foot, her teeth bared and her ears laid flat along the back of her head. If the human was capable of seeing through the disguise which hid the beast’s true appearance, Shalthazar had no doubt about his reaction to the supernatural creature. The wizard detested the bargain he had made with the dark god which included this military annexation and desperately wanted to end this charade. But he let out a sigh and calmed himself, now was not the time.
    “We go where we need to go and will return when we intend to,” he said, deigning not to answer the general’s questions. Shalthazar spurred his mount and the beast took off with such violence that she would have unseated the dark wizard had he not been prepared. The portcullis was open and a white expanse of snow covered countryside lay open before him as he and the apprentices thundered ahead.
    Shalthazar’s apprentices had all been carefully screened for their ability in magic and their ability to keep secrets. The best and brightest of his students were selected for this mission, including Urelis. Using the power of the Shadow Sigil he probed each one’s mind and forced them to submit to his will. Each apprentice swore an oath that was magically reinforced; they could never willingly reveal any of the secrets of their craft to the Nashians. Should an offender possess enough strength of will to overcome the magical compulsion, his tongue would detach and force itself down his own throat.
    The dark wizard and his three dark apprentices rumbled onto the road beyond the still frozen moat, each apprentice astride a nightmare he himself had summoned from the depths of the Shadowrealms as had their master. The intense heat of the infernal beast’s hooves caused the snow to melt in explosive clouds of vapor, a small indication that the disguise spells which protected the creatures’ identities were beginning to wear off.
    The four horsemen thundered down the road and away from the view of the keep and continued to run. The road came to a stop at an intersection at the base of the Ogrewall Mountains where they could go no farther, leaving the men to choose either right or left roads parallel to the Ogrewall Mountains. They turned left and headed southward toward the distant sea, still very much in the hill country. They left behind the areas patrolled by the forces of the Nashian military and continued into the uncontested hill country regions. After a few days of hard riding through snow covered countryside, they reached an area inhabited by hardy people devoted to the ways of Zuhr and Ulrych.
    And here the four dark men would test the new weapon created by Shalthazar, Master of Shadows.
    Shalthazar halted his nightmare outside the first village they came to. It was a village numbering nearly two hundred residents, or so his scouts reported. They stood just outside the border of the village's territory, and Shalthazar waited to be discovered. The scouts reported that this village, so close to the wilder regions, had an organized city watch that conducted regular patrols around the city perimeter, along the road, and into the wilderness far enough to protect the interests of the villagers. Their patrols rarely numbered more than ten, sufficient numbers to handle any roaming oroks or a few brigands.
    Shalthazar took his shiny black ram’s head staff from the sleeve on his saddle and waved it in a circular pattern, breathing the words of power in the language of Shadow. In a flash, the spells which disguised the four nightmares vanished. It was as though the beasts seemed to know and they began to prance in circles and stomp, eager to be free of the confines of the spells which hid their demonic identities. The nightmares were intimidating to behold, their eyes aglow with the red light of hatred and sparks