"Can you move the barge farther back from the house?" Rayne called to Shalanda.

"I don't think so," she replied. "The Keldons have turned off the motivating force. This isn't going to move an inch without their cooperation."

A crossbow bolt shot from the house and imbedded itself in the upper shell supports. Shalanda hopped out of the vehicle and crouched behind the barge's legs. Another shot skimmed along the ground and rebounded off a runner's leg.

"Apparently, they aren't going to cooperate," Rayne said as she signaled the other scouts to crowd against the barge and crouch their machines so the Keldon vehicle blocked shots. "Call back your ants," Rayne ordered the ant handler.

The steel ants still circled the house and dug at the walls, but the scout called them back with a whistle. They came at good speed, but one collected a bolt that crippled its rear legs. It dragged the dead limbs as it continued on the other four.

"We need to see if the Keldons are exiting the rear of the house," Rayne said and pointed to a League soldier. "Circle around and check if our reluctant friends are doing anything. Keep your eyes open for enemy reinforcements." The scout looked apprehensive as he turned and raced away. He stopped and began riding in a circle to stay out of range of the crossbows.

"Reload weapons," Rayne ordered. The scouts paired off. Leaning far to the side, a rider could just feed fresh bolts to another person's runner while keeping behind cover. Rayne guided her machine to her aide who was popping her head up to look inside the barge in quick glances. "What do you think?" she asked.

"I need only a few more minutes to examine the barge," Shalanda replied. "There are crates of vegetation and a few sealed boxes that seem related to the blight but somehow different. If only I could open the crates. Perhaps if I am quick enough?"

Rayne shook her head. "Without heavy shielding it's just too dangerous," the scholar said. "If we can't move the barge, we'll have to clear out the house."

"If I lie on the floor of the barge I should be safe enough," Shalanda insisted.

"Eventually the Keldons are going to realize that we want the barge and its contents," Rayne said. "I expect a barrage of burning crossbow bolts will soon follow. We need to move now. Save your energy for healing and investigating the barge. I don't know how soon Keldon reinforcements might arrive."

Rayne turned her machine toward the other scouts who gathered around her. They crouched lower as another crossbow bolt sailed through the barge and off into the distance. A scout began feeding bolts into Rayne's machine.

"We need a plan of attack," she said.

"We could send in the ants to open up the walls," offered one scout. "It would take time, but we could drive them out." The ants could chew through heavy walls, but it was slow.

"We need to end this fast so Shalanda can finish examining the cargo," Rayne replied.

The ant handler reached into a saddlebag and drew out a metal cylinder.

"If I could get some covering fire, I could burn them out." The scout was carefully taking the container apart. A fragile pottery vessel lay inside. "The other scouting parties captured a fire barge last week. I and a few others decided to test some of the munitions. This should start a fire without Shalanda expending herself."

"Everyone go around the right side of the barge and fire your bolts into the windows facing us," Rayne ordered and then pointed to the handler. "Go around the right side of the machine and run up to the right-hand corner of the house. Stay clear of the front windows or you might be shot."

The scouts quickly jockeyed for position, and then Rayne gave the signal.

Eight runners darted out and unleashed a steady barrage of bolts. Two crossbow bolts came from the house, one sinking into a scout's arm. Blood spurted out of a cut artery, and the man sent his machine back behind the barge. Shalanda pulled him out of the saddle and in seconds was locked in a healing trance.

Meanwhile, the ant handler's machine reached the house. One ant followed, like a dog after a horse, trying to keep up. The scout paused at the corner and threw the captured Keldon munitions onto the building. The pottery broke, and a thick, oozing molasseslike liquid slowly coated the wall. The scout and the accompanying ant raced back for cover.

"Back behind the barge!" Rayne called, and the scouts retreated. The ant handler dismounted and crawled onto the deck of the barge. He creeped forward, dragging his launcher behind him. Then he sat up and fired a light rocket toward the house, aiming at the liquid soaked into the timber and coating the stone base. The projectile blew a hole only a hand's breadth wide, but it ignited the fluid. Within seconds the fire caught and spread over the house. The hole left by the rocket seemed to suck the fire inside, and Rayne could hear Keldons screaming inside. Smoke poured from around the barricaded door and windows. Warriors threw shutters open and tried to breathe and then crawl through the small openings.

The handler rolled to the backside of the barge and whistled the ants to him. The war machines milled below, and then, at his direction, ran toward the burning building. The warriors inside forced open the door, kicking the remnants of the barricade into the yard. They exited coughing and crawling. Each warrior must have been nearly blind from the smoke and many waved swords wildly against attackers they could not see. Like helpless kittens they died under the implacable jaws of the war machines. Ants hauled the bodies away, tearing at the dead flesh.

"Circle and pick off anyone on the other side," Rayne ordered. "Keep an eye out for that crossbow." She sent her machine toward the house, swinging wide to see around the building. The ant handler remounted and accompanied her. Shalanda was already searching through the crates.

Rayne watched the house burn. The smoke poured out so thickly it was hard to see the building. A Keldon and servant tore out a window frame and stumbled clear, coughing and teary-eyed but both carrying loaded crossbows. The ant handler bolted them, and they dropped, twisting as they fell so they lay against the wall.

"They came a long way to die," Rayne said. Burning pieces of the shutters fell onto the bodies, igniting their clothes.

"Well, I didn't invite them," the handler replied. The building was totally engulfed in flames, and the roof collapsed into the building's interior. The handler whistled the steel ants together and headed back to the captured barge. Rayne smelled the roasting flesh and wondered how many more lives would be destroyed in the war. At last, she turned her machine and started for her aide to see just what they had captured.

"I found the source of what I sensed earlier," Shalanda said. She kicked open a crate, and out poured dead ground squirrels. Each tiny corpse had been covered with a layer of preservative, and the bodies stuck together like melted hard candy. "The animals all died without a mark. The other special crates contain other species of dead animals and samples of dead vegetation."

"So animals are being targeted now as well as plants," Rayne said. "How are they spreading the disease?"

"I can't tell without doing more research. I can use these samples to complete my own investigation." She looked at the crates with a more speculative eye. "Rayne, they may not be spreading the blight at all."

"There is a connection," Rayne said. "They are driving people off the land, and the war is destroying what's left." Rayne looked to the burned-out shell of the farmhouse. "They are a disease that is killing this land."