beneath a cloudless sky, the war-party was cutting westward. a week's travel would find it in the kryn freetrade, the centre of all eastern commerce with lether. maral eb would slaughter everyone and then assume control of the caravanserai and all the trader forts. he would make himself rich and his people powerful. his triumph would elevate the barahn to the position they rightfully deserved among the white faces. onos toolan would be deposed and the other clans would flock to join maral. he would carve out an empire, selling akrynnai and d'ras slaves until the vast plains belonged to the barghast and no one else. he would set heavy tariffs on the saphii and bolkando, and he would build a vast city in kryn, raising a palace and establishing impregnable fortresses along the borderlands.

his allies among the senan had already been instructed to steal for him the twin daughters of hetan. he would bring them into his own household and when they reached blooding age he would take them as his wives. hetan's fate he left to others. there was the young boy, the true son of the imass, and he would have to be killed, of course. along with cafal, to end once and for all humbrall taur's line.

his musings on the glory awaiting him were interrupted by the sudden appearance ahead of two of his scouts, carrying a body between them.

another barghast-but not one of his own.

maral eb held up one hand, halting his war-party, and then jogged forward to meet the scouts.

the barghast was a mess. his left arm was gone below the elbow and the stump seethed with maggots. fires had melted away half his face and fragments of his armour of tin coinage glittered amidst the weltered ruin of skin and meat on his chest. by the fetishes dangling from his belt maral knew him to be a snakehunter, one of the smaller clans.

he scowled and waved at the flies. 'does he live?'

one of the scouts nodded and then added, 'not for much longer, warchief.'

'set him down, gently now.' maral eb moved up and knelt beside the young warrior. he swallowed down his disgust and said, 'snakehunter, open your eyes. i am maral eb of the barahn. speak to me, give me your last words. what has befallen you?'

the one surviving eye that opened was thick with mucus, a dirty yellow rimmed in cracked, swollen flesh. the mouth worked for a moment, and then raw words broke loose. 'i am benden ledag, son of karavt and elor. remember me. i alone survived. i am the last snakehunter, the last.'

'does an akrynnai army await me?'

'i do not know what awaits you, maral eb. but i know what awaits me-damnation.' the face twisted with pain.

'open your eye-look at me, warrior! speak to me of your slayer!'

'damnation, yes. for i fled. i did not stand, did not die with my kin. i ran. a terrified hare, a leap-mouse in the grass.' speech was drying out the last fluids within him and his breath grated. 'run, maral eb. show me how... how cowards live.'

maral eb made a fist to strike the babbling fool, and then forced himself to relax. 'the barahn fear no enemy. we shall avenge you, benden ledag. we shall avenge the snakehunter. and may the souls of your fallen kin hunt you down.'

the dying fool somehow managed a smile. 'i will wait for them. i will have a joke, yes, one that will make them smile-as was my way. zaravow, though, he has no reason to laugh, for i stole his wife-i stole her pleasure-' he hacked out a laugh. 'it is what weak men do... have always done.' the eye suddenly sharpened, fixed on maral eb. 'and you, barahn, i will wait for you, too.' the smile faltered, the face lost its clenched pain, and the wind's air flowed unclaimed through the gape of his mouth.

maral eb stared down into that unseeing eye for a moment. then he cursed and straightened. 'leave him to the crows,' he said. 'sound the horns-draw in the forward scouts. we shall camp here and ready ourselves-there is vengeance in our future, and it shall be sweet.'

two of the six women dragged what was left of the horse trader to the gully cutting down the hillside and rolled him into it. hearing snakes slithering in the thick brush of the gully, they quickly backed away and returned to the others.

hessanrala, warleader of this troop of skincuts, glanced over from the makeshift bridle she was fixing to her new horse, grinned as both women tugged fistfuls of grass to clean the blood and semen from their hands, and said, 'see to your horses.'

the one closest to her flung the stained grasses to one side. 'a nest of vipers,' she said. 'every clump of sagebrush and rillfire swarms with them.'

'such omens haunt us,' the other one muttered.