Utaiba furrowed his brow, "I do not like this. The Zhentarim are not fools. They would not leave themselves so exposed."

"Perhaps not," Sa'ar agreed, drawing his sword. "But what choice do we have? Even if they have prepared an ambush for us, we must attack in order to lure them into our own trap."

Utaiba considered this for a moment, then said, "You are right. Let us hope that Eldath, not N'asr, is with us today." He also drew his scimitar, then looked toward Ruha. "Now is the time for your spell."

The young witch took a deep breath, then nodded and said, "We'll need to be at the head of the column."

The two sheikhs glanced at each other with concern, but Sa'ar nodded. "Whatever you say."

They urged their camels closer to hers and moved to the head of the long line of warriors. Ahead of them, the canyon climbed through a stretch of steep boulder-strewn ground, then turned sharply to the left and disappeared into a maze of brown rock laced by deep, man-sized fissures. After that, the scouts had reported, it twisted back to the right and opened into a sandy dale that must have been a pool when there was water in the canyon. It was there that the tents of the Zhentarim were pitched.

Ruha took a small quartz crystal from her pocket. As it caught At'ar's rays, she faced the long column of warriors and manipulated the crystal in her hand until she could see their wavy image in the clear quartz. She selected a brawny warrior at the head of the column and focused on the jambiya in his belt.

When she uttered her spell, Sa'ar gasped. "Incredible!"

Ruha opened her eyes and saw that the spell had worked. Beyond the brawny warrior whose dagger she had selected as a focus, a sheet of wavering heat filled the canyon from wall to wall, obscuring the Bedine behind it. It was impossible to see anything beyond that single warrior clearly, for the images were all distorted. However, it did appear that there were about eight times as many men in the canyon than were really there.

Ruha pointed at the warrior. "Everything behind that man's dagger is distorted by the spell," she said. "If he falls, the spell will stop moving until someone else takes his dagger and continues with it."

"Magic is not without its shortcomings, I see," Utaiba noted wryly.

"Neither are we," Sa'ar answered. "But we shall do our best anyway. Now, let us return to our place in line. If we only have an hour, we must hurry."

"Be careful when you pass through the sunwarp," Ruha said, urging her camel toward the column. "Don't tarry inside, or you will have reason to regret it."

As the widow spoke, she urged her mount into the distortion, ferociously lashing at its neck with her reigns. The camel sprang forward into a wave of blistering heat. The beast roared in surprise and terror, but under Ruha's prodding it continued forward, and, an instant later, they were on the other side of the sunwarp.

On the downhill side of the distortion, a stiff breeze ran along the ground as the spell sucked the fire from the desert and sent it climbing toward the sky in a great wavering sheet. Sa'ar and Utaiba sat on the other side of the wall, staring in Ruha's direction with awe and fear.

"What do you see?" asked Sa'ar's burly warrior, Kabina. "You look as though you are facing an army of djinns."

"We see nothing but wavering forms, and many times the number we know are there," Sa'ar answered, still staring at the wall. "It is as if At'ar has blinded us!"

"She has," Ruha replied. "Now, come back here."

Setting their jaws as if riding into a wall of flame, the sheikhs urged their mounts forward and galloped through the sunwarp in two swift strides. When they reached the other side, their faces were as chalky as a white camel and they stared at the witch with expressions of awe and respect. Their mounts were so excited that it was all they could do to control them.

Sa'ar pointed at a dozen warriors, then directed them toward the Bedine upon whom Ruha had centered the spell. "You men, ring Dahalzel. If he falls, one of you must take his jambiya and continue forward. If that man falls, someone else must take the dagger."

"I will need my dagger in N'asr's camp!" objected the confused warrior.

"Don't argue," Utaiba answered, drawing his scimitar. "Your jambiya is the center of the witch's spell."

The man's swarthy complexion paled to a sickly shade of yellow. "My dagger?"

A roar of laughter went up from the twelve men assigned to escort Dahalzel. "We will protect you from the enemy's arrows, my friend," said one of them. "But you must look to the gods to save you from the witch's magic."

"Enough!" Sa'ar roared, guiding his camel into place at Ruha's left side. "Let us attack!"

With a queasy look, Dahalzel turned his attention up the canyon. He nocked an arrow, then urged his camel forward and led the way toward the Zhentarim camp.

A few minutes later, the column of nervous warriors emerged from the maze of fissure-laced rock. It stopped at the edge of the sandy hollow where the sheikhs had expected to fight the Zhentarim. As the scouts had claimed, several hundred tents stood in the dale, but there was still no sign of the enemy.

Sa'ar looked immediately to Ruha. "Is your spell hiding the enemy?"

Ruha shook her head. "No."

"It isn't the witch," Utaiba said, motioning six men forward. "I fear we are too late. The Zhentarim are gone." The wiry sheikh sent the men to track the invaders up the canyon.

"It cannot be!" Sa'ar objected. "What of the asabis? They cannot move during the day."

"Perhaps they are still in their burrows," Ruha suggested.

"Perhaps," Sa'ar nodded. He sent a rider back to report the deserted camp to the tribes waiting in ambush, and five dozen men ventured into the dale to probe the sand with their spears.

The probers spread out across the width of the dale and began searching for sleeping asabis. While one man pushed his spear deep into the sand, a comrade stood by with a drawn scimitar, ready to defend him if the prober got lucky and struck a sleeping reptile. When they found nothing, they moved a yard farther up the canyon and tried again. Occasionally a man fell excitedly to his knees and scooped the sand away, only to uncover a submerged rock or the half-petrified trunk of an acacia tree.

The rest of the column waited in the sun, fighting the urge to open their waterskins and quench the thirst that always seemed worse when doing nothing. Now and then, the camels belched or roared, as irritated by the wait as their riders were. In hushed whispers, a few men suggested to their fellows what Ruha and the sheikhs had already guessed: the Zhentarim had escaped.

Ruha's spell fell long before the probers reached the other side of the dale, but it did not matter. The spearmen returned with nothing to report. Though their spears had often sunk clear to the bedrock, they had not found so much as a single asabi burrowed into the sand.

A few minutes later, one of the scouts Utaiba had sent to track the Zhentarim returned. He reported that the canyon was full of camel tracks, but there was no sign of the asabis.

"The Zhentarim are running for Orofin!" Utaiba concluded.

"And they must have left the asabis behind," Sa'ar added, scowling. "But where?"

Utaiba shrugged. "Let's find out."

Sa'ar nodded, then ordered the entire column forward. As Ruha and the sheikhs moved into the dale, a muffled clack echoed from a crevice on the north side of the canyon. Ruha heard a hiss, then felt her mount's withers flinch. The beast roared in astonishment and rolled to its left. As the camel's legs buckled, the young witch leaped free. She landed a foot behind the Sa'ar's huge mount, already summoning a spell to mind. She spun around and pointed her hand toward the fissure, raising the other toward At'ar.