The sort of evil that'll wipe out everybody, your folk and mine both.

And the fight isn't over." The sound Rasile made in her throat this time really was a growl, though it wasn't a threat to him. "No, Warrior Cashel," she said, "the fight is not over." She gestured toward the eastern horizon. "A very great fight is coming, I believe.

But-you have Tenoctris again." "Ma'am," Cashel said, hearing his voice drop lower because of the subject, "what with one thing and another, I've been in a lot of fights. I'venever been in one where I wouldn't have welcomed help, though. I figure Garric feels the same way."

Rasile gave a throaty laugh. "I am relieved to hear that," she said.

"During the time I accompanied your spouse Sharina, Warrior Cashel, I became accustomed to not being relegated to filth and garbage. While Icould return to my former life with the True People, I don't feel the need to reinforce my sense of humility to that degree. Wholesome though no doubt it would be to do so." The laughed together. Cashel looked down at the city, holding his quarterstaff in his left hand.

There were all sorts of people below, walking and working and just idling along. They made him think of summer days in the south pasture, sitting beneath the ilex tree on the hilltop and watching his sheep go about their business. In the past couple years Cashel had gone a lot of places and done a lot of things, but he was still a shepherd at heart. He'd learned there were worse things than sea wolves twisting out of the surf to snatch ewes-but he'd learned also that his hickory staff would put paid to a wizard as quickly as it would to the sort of threats his sheep had faced.