Tang looked past Fui to Yuan Ti, the moon-faced com- mander of the sentries who protected his lizard park.

Since the young officer had already faced the dragon and lived, General Fui had selected him as second in com- mand for this mission.

Yuan swallowed and reached for his sword, but his hand began to tremble, and he did not draw the weapon.

The youth clenched his teeth as though fighting a wave of nausea, and tears welled in his eyes.

Tang scowled at the hesitation. "Why do you delay?

Punish General Fui's insolence!"

Yuan managed to pull his sword halfway from its sheath, then turned away sobbing. The youth's profile accentuated his flat cheeks, and it was then Tang real- ized the boy's identity. The fury faded from the lasal – induced storm inside the prince's head, and the tempest became instead a drizzle that clouded his thoughts with cold, sick regret. It was not uncommon for Shou generals to make places for their sons in their own commands, but how was Tang to know the youth's identity? A Shou prince did not trouble himself with the domestic lives of his inferiors. He could hardly be expected to know every son that his officers brought to the Ginger Palace.

Tang allowed General Fui's boy to weep, grateful for a few moments to struggle with this new dilemma. As much as he disliked the idea of ordering a son to slay hi?

own father, he could hardly retract the command now.

The men had already come close to treason when they laughed at him earlier; to tolerate any further insubordi- nation would only convince them that he was a weak and inept leader. Yuan would have to obey the command. If there was another way to solve the problem, the prince could not see it through the lasal haze.

In a gentle but loud voice. Tang said, "You are a Shou soldier. You must do as I order."

The youth choked back his sobs and turned to face

Tang. "Merciful Prince, the lasal leaves-"

General Fui raised his head. "Silence, Yuan!" His voice had assumed the hard edge of command. "Do not dis- honor our ancestors by arguing with your Prince!"

The general pressed his brow to the logs again. The thought flashed through Tang's mind that there must be a way to show mercy without showing weakness, but it was chased into the lasal haze by a great cry from Yuan's mouth. In a motion too fast to see, the youth unsheathed his sword and brought the blade down on his father's neck. There was a wet crack, and Fui's head toppled off the raft into the swamp. The general's body shuddered once, then went limp and slipped out of its kowtow, slowly stretching forward to push its headless shoulders into the dark pool.

Fui's head rolled in the water, bringing his granite eyes around to stare vacantly upward. Tang's stomach began to feel queasy, but he clenched his teeth against the feeling and forced himself not to look away. The whole point of the punishment had been to show his sol- diers that he was a strong leader, and he would not accomplish that by allowing the gaze of a dead man to intimidate him.

Yuan ripped the front off his silken battle tunic and used it to dab his father's blood off the blade. When he finished, he sheathed his sword, then carefully folded the cloth and slipped it beneath his leather corselet.

The adjutant bowed to Tang, his eyes now as hard as his father's. "I obey your command. My Prince."

Tang honored the youth by returning his bow. "The

Minister of War shall-" The prince had to interrupt him- self to take a deep breath and regain control of his churn- ing stomach. "He shall hear of your dedication to duty."

Yuan's eyes showed no sign of softening, but they did shift away from the prince's face toward the water, where

a dozen shapes were rapidly drifting toward General

Fui's body. At first. Tang took the forms for floating logs

Then he noticed the eyes and nostrils protruding above the bog scum, and also the powerful tails snaking back and forth behind their bodies.

The first beast slid between the prince's dugout and

Yuan's raft. Silently, it took Fui's head into its jaws and slid beneath the dark water, vanishing from sight almost before Tang realized he was looking at an alligator.

Yuan reached down to pull the rest of his father's body back onto the raft, then almost lost a hand as another of the monsters latched on to the corpse's shoulder. The cadaver slid off the logs and disappeared beneath the surface in a quick swirl. A second creature, easily as long as Tang's dugout, dove after the body-stealer, and the water erupted into a bloody, churning froth as the two animals tore the cadaver to pieces.

Tang finally lost control of his rebellious stomach and turned away while it purged itself-then nearly lost his head as a pair of tooth-filled jaws rose from the water tr snap at his face. He slashed at it ineffectually with the sword in his hand, and his boatpushers stepped over to hold the thing at bay while he finished retching. Behind the prince sounded a startled scream, followed by a loud splash and the brief gurgle of a man's voice.

An astonished murmur rustled through the swamp;

then half the soldiers in the company cried out in fear

The rippling siffle of halberds slashing water filled the air. Several men fell into the pond and shrieked as they were dragged beneath the surface.

When Tang's stomach finally finished with him, he wiped his mouth on a boatpusher's sleeve, then turned to see his entire company of soldiers besieged by alligators.

The men were standing back-to-back in the center of all five rafts, thrusting the tips of their long halberds at the throng of circling alligators-several of which looked longer than the vessels themselves. Many of the logs were smeared with blood, while the water was littered

with broken halberd shafts, ribbons of shredded silk, and alligators writhing in pain.

As Tang watched, a swimming alligator whipped its body around, driving its head and forequarters onto a raft. The attack was met by a flurry of driving halberds, most of which pierced the beast's armored hide and sank to a depth of several inches. The monster clutched at the logs with the claws of its stubby forelegs and dragged itself forward. The men braced themselves, trying to shove their blades deeper into their attacker's flesh.

The creature ignored the assault and continued to claw its way onto the raft. One warrior lost his footing and slid across the raft, where another alligator seized his ankle and dragged him, screaming, into the scum- covered waters. Several others, finding their halberds'

damp shafts slipping backward through their grasp, dropped their polearms to reach for their swords. Only one man could drive his weapon deep enough to cause the behemoth any injury. The alligator simply snapped its head to one side and jerked the weapon out of the sol- dier's hands, then retreated into the water.

Tang peered over the side of his dugout and saw sev- eral alligators floating alongside, their ravenous gazes searching for something to snatch. Fortunately, the punt's sides were high enough to conceal his vulnerable legs, or one of the beasts would certainly have pulled him into the swamp by now. As it was, he took the precaution of raising his arms above his chest and ordering his boat- pushers to do the same, lest one of the creatures attempt to snatch a dangling hand and capsize the punt.