jennsen sat close to Sebastian, drawing comfort from his familiar presence, yet wishing they could instead be alone by a campfire frying up fish or cooking beans. She felt more alone at the emperor's table, with servants hovering all about, than she'd ever felt by herself in the silence of a forest. Without Sebastian there, laughing and talking, she didn't know what she would have done, how she would have behaved. She was uncomfortable enough around regular people; this was far more unnerving.

Emperor Jagang was a man who, without effort, fluidly dominated the room. Although he never broke his gracious, courtly manner with her, in some inscrutable way, he made her feel that every breath she took had been granted her only by his grace. He referenced momentous matters offhandedly, without realizing he was doing it, so common were such responsibilities, so sure his unflinching rule. He was a mountain lion at rest, sleek and poised, tail swishing lazily, licking his chops.

This was not an emperor who was content to sit safely by, back in some remote palace, and receive reports; this was an emperor who led his men into the thick of battle. This was an emperor who dug his hands down into the bloody muck of life and death and pulled out what he wanted.

Though it seemed an extravagant dinner for what was, after all, an army on the march, it was still the emperor's tent and table, and reflected that fact. There was food and drink in abundance, everything from fowl to fish, beef to lamb, wine to water.

As servants, focused on their tasks, rushed in and out with steaming platters of beautifully prepared food, treating her like royalty, Jennsen was struck with a sudden gut-wrenching glimpse of how her mother, as a lowly, obscure, humble young woman, must have felt as she sat at Lord Rahl's table, as she saw such tempting variety and abundance as she had never imagined, while at the same time trembling at being in the presence of a man with the power to sentence death, without pausing his meal.

Jennsen had little appetite. She pulled dainty strips of meat off of the succulent piece of pork sitting before her on a thick slab of bread, and nibbled as she listened to the two men talk. Their conversation was trivial. Jennsen sensed that when she was not around, the two men would have much more to say to each another. As it was, they spoke of acquaintances and caught up on inconsequential matters that had taken place since Sebastian had left the army the previous summer.

"What of Aydindril?" Sebastian asked at last as he stabbed a slice of meat on the point of his knife.

The emperor twisted a leg off a crispy goose. He planted his elbows on the edge of the table as he leaned forward and gestured vaguely with his prize. "I don't know."

Sebastian lowered his knife. "What do you mean? I remember the lay of the land. You are but a day or two away." His voice was respectful, but clearly concerned. "How can you march in without knowing what awaits in Aydindril?"

Jagang tore a big bite off the fat end of the goose leg, the bone spanning the fingers of both hands. Grease dripped from the meat, and from his fingers.

"Well," he said at last, waving the bone over his shoulder before casting it aside on a plate, "we sent scouts and patrols to have a look, but none returned.»

"None of them?" Concern put an edge on Sebastian's voice.

Jagang picked up a knife and sliced off a chunk of lamb from a platter to the side. "None," he said as he stabbed the piece of meat.

With his teeth, Sebastian eased the bite off his knife and then set the blade down. He rested his elbows on the edge of the table and folded his fingers together as he considered.

"The Wizard's Keep is in Aydindril," Sebastian said at last in a quiet voice. "I saw it, when I scouted the city last year. It sits on the side of a mountain, overlooking the city."

"I remember your report," Jagang answered.

Jennsen wanted to ask what a "Wizard's Keep" was, but not enough to break her silence while the men talked. Besides, it seemed somewhat selfevident, especially by the ominous tone in Sebastian's voice when he said it.

Sebastian rubbed his palms together. "Then may I ask your plan?"

The emperor flicked his fingers in command. All the servants vanished. Jennsen wished she could go with them, go hide under her blanket and be a proper nobody again. Outside, thunder rumbled and occasional gusts of wind drove fits of rain against the tent. The candles and lamps set about the table lit the two men and the immediate area, but left the soft carpets and walls in near darkness.

Emperor Jagang glanced briefly at Jennsen before directing his inky gaze to Sebastian. "I intend to move in swiftly. Not with the whole army, as I believe they will expect, but with a small enough force of cavalry to be maneuverable, yet large enough to maintain control of the situation. Of course we will take a sizable contingent of the gifted."

In the span of those brief words, the mood had turned deadly serious. Jennsen sensed that she was silent witness to the pivotal moments of a momentous event. It was frightening to think of the lives that hung in the balance of the words these two men spoke.

Sebastian weighed the emperor's words for a time before speaking. "Do you have any idea how Aydindril wintered?"

Jagang shook his head. He pulled a chunk of lamb off the point of his knife and spoke as he chewed.

"The Mother Confessor is many things; stupid is not one of them. She would have known for a long time, by the direction of our push, by the movements she's observed, by the cities that have already fallen, the path we have chosen, by all the reports and information she would have gathered, that with spring I will move on Aydindril. I've given them a good long time to sweat as they ponder their fate. I suspect that by now they're all shaking in their boots, but I don't think she has the heart to flee."

"You think that Lord Rahl's wife is there?" Jennsen blurted out in astonishment. "In the city? The Mother Confessor herself T'

Both men paused and gazed at her. The tent was silent.

Jennsen shrank. "Forgive me for speaking."

The emperor grinned. "Why should I forgive you? You've just stuck a knife in the prize goose and called it true." With his blade, he gestured toward Sebastian. "You brought a special woman, a woman with a good head on her shoulders."

Sebastian rubbed Jermsen's back. "And a pretty head, at that."

Jagang's black eyes gleamed as he watched her. "Yes, indeed." His fingers blindly scooped olives from a glass bowl to the side. "So, Jennsen Rahl, what is your thinking about all this?"

Since she had already spoken, she couldn't now decline to answer. She gathered herself and considered the question.

"Whenever I was hiding from Lord Rahl, I would try not to do anything that would let him know where I was. I tried to do everything I could to keep him blind. Maybe that's what they are doing, too. Trying to keep you blind."

"That's what I was thinking," Sebastian said. "If they're terrified, they might try to eliminate any scout or patrol in order to make us think that they're more powerful than they are and to conceal any defensive plans."

"And keep at least some element of surprise on their side," Jennsen added.

"My thought, too," Jagang said. He grinned at Sebastian. "Small wonder you would bring me such a woman-she is a strategist, too." Jagang winked at Jermsen, then rang a bell to the side.

A woman, the one in the gray dress and tied-back gray and black hair, appeared at a distant opening. "Yes, Excellency?"

"Bring the young lady some fruits and sweetmeats."

As she bowed and left, the emperor turned serious again. "That's why I believe it best to take a smaller force than they are sure to expect, one able to maneuver quickly in response to what defenses they try to catch us up in. They may be able to overpower our small patrols, but not a sizable force of cavalry and gifted. If need be, we can always pour men into the city. After a winter of sitting on their behinds, they would be more than happy to be unleashed. But I'm reluctant to start out with what those in Aydindril are expecting."

Sebastian was idly poking a thick slab of roast beef with his knife as he considered. "She might be in the Confessors' Palace." He redirected his gaze to the emperor. "The Mother Confessor very well might have decided to make her stand at long last."

"I think so, too," Emperor Jagang said. Outside, the spring storm had picked up, the chill wind moaning among the tents.

Jennsen couldn't restrain herself. "You really think she will be there?" she asked both men. "You honestly think she would remain there when she knows you're coming with an enormous army?"

Jagang shrugged. "I can't be sure, of course, but I've battled her all the way up through the Midlands. In the past, she had options, choices, tough though they sometimes were. We drove her army into Aydindril just before winter, then sat at her doorstep. Now, she and her army have run out of choices, and, with the mountains all around, places to flee. Even she knows that a time comes when the choice you are given must be faced. I think this may be where she chooses to at last stand and fight."

Sebastian stabbed a portion of meat. "It sounds too simple."

"Of course it does," Jagang said, "that's why I must consider that she may have decided to do it."

Sebastian gestured north with the red piece of meat on the point of his blade. "She may have pulled back into the mountains, and left only enough men to take out scouts and patrols, to keep you blind, as Jennsen suggested."

Jagang shrugged. "Possibly. She is a woman who is impossible to predict. But she's running out of places to pull back to. Sooner or later there will be no ground left. This may not be her plan, but, then again, it might be so."

Jennsen hadn't realized that the Old World had made such progress at throwing back the enemy. Sebastian, too, had been away a long time. Matters, for the Old World, were not nearly so bleak as she had thought. Still, it sounded a great risk to take based on such thin conjecture.

"And so you're willing to gamble your men on such a battle, hoping she will be there?"

"Gamble?" Jagang sounded amused by the suggestion. "Don't you see? It isn't really a gamble at all. Either way, we have nothing to lose. Either way, we will have Aydindril. In so doing, we finally cleave the Midlands, thus cleaving the entire New World in two. Cleave and conquer is the path to victory."