"They know you, Deliverer. They are eager to find life in your avenging hand."

"What are they?" the boy demanded. "Where did they come from?"

"Long before Nawami fell it was obvious that Nahaman would work her will. We sidestepped her fury by slipping out the door of time. We allowed her her victory. We devoted our Power to preparations for the day a Deliverer would release us from the bonds she would impose. We did not expect you to be so long coming, nor did we foresee her so weakening us that a sending of dolphins would almost be beyond us."

Ethrian's basic questions remained unanswered. He suspected he would not find the important answers till too late. "Who are these people?"

"Some of the fallen of the Nawami Crusades. They were reanimated, motivated, and preserved by our art," said the voice of the stone beast. "They, too, await their Deliverer." Dead men? Ethrian thought. He was supposed to perform some foul necromancy that would recall the dead? Revulsion hit him. The dead were much feared in his age. The woman in white faced him. A smile toyed with her mouth. She began to talk. Her words did not synchronize with the movement of her lips.

"You have your enemies, do you not?" Her speech seemed to come from afar, like a whispering breeze through pines. "Here lies the power to lay them low, Deliverer."

Ethrian was young, confused, frightened, and dreaming, but he was not stupid. He knew there would be a price. What was it?

"Free us," the woman insisted. "Deliver us. That's all we ask."

Ethrian gazed upon the armies in waiting, the armies of the dead, and reflected on the fall of Nawami. Should such fury be released again? Could it be controlled? Was revenge so important?

What other force could face the might of the Dread Empire? Only these elder sorceries could withstand those boiling in Shinsan today.