What is this, my rings? This shivering sensation, coursing through our stack? It feels like dread familiarity. Or a familiar dread.

Amid this horrible glare, we stand rooted in the festival glade with the Rothen ship grounded nearby, encased in a bubble of frozen time, with leaves and twigs caught motionless, mid-whirl, next to its gold-sealed hull.

And above, this new power. This new titan. The searing lights dim. Humming an overpowering song, the monstrous vessel descends, crushing every remaining tree on the south side of the valley, shoving a new bed for the river, filling the sky like a mountain.

Can you feel it, my rings?

Can you feel the premonition that throbs our core with acid vapors?

Along the vast flank of the starship, a hatch opens, large enough to swallow a small village.

Against the lighted interior, silhouettes enter view.

Tapered cones. Stacks of rings.

Frightful kinfolk we had hoped never to see again.

The Stranger hurried into camp a while after the second ship passed overhead. By then, Sara had recovered enough to bring her mind back down to matters close at hand.

Matters she could do something about.

The star-man came from the south, herding a half-dozen weary donkeys. He seemed excited, feverish with need to tell of something. His mouth opened and closed, gabbling incoherently, as if trying to force words by sheer will.

Sara felt his forehead and checked his eyes.

“I know,” she said, trying to calm his overwrought nerves. “We saw it too. A huge damn thing, bigger than Dolo Lake. I wish you could tell us whether it was your ship, or someone you don’t like much.”

In fact, she wasn’t even sure the man could hear her voice, let alone follow her meaning. He had been closer to the stun-grenade and less prepared.

Nevertheless, something seemed strange about his excitement. He did not point at the sky, as she would have expected, nor to the north, where the two ships were last seen descending, one after the other. Instead, he gestured southward, in the direction he had just come.

The Stranger’s gaze met hers, and he shuddered. His brow furrowed in concentration as he took several deep breaths. Then, with a light suddenly in his eyes, he sang,

His voice was raspy and Sara saw tears. Still, he went on, triggering verses that he knew by heart — that lay ready, even after many decades, creased in undamaged folds of his brain.

Sara nodded, trying to sift meaning out of the lullaby.

“All the pretty litt — oh, Ifni!”

She whirled to face the explosers.

“He’s seen more urs! They’re here already, swinging south to take us from behind!”

Kurt blinked a couple of times, then began to open his mouth — but was cut off by a fluting whistle of jubilation from the prisoners.

Ulgor stretched her neck toward them. “I told you our allies would not take long arriving. Now cut these cords so I can intercede, and fersuade our Urunthai friends not to treat you too badly.”

“Sara,” Kurt said, taking her elbow. But she shrugged him off. There was no time to spare.

“Kurt, you take Jornah, Prity, and the Stranger into the rocks. The Urunthai can’t follow well in rough terrain. You might reach high ground if Blade and I stall them. Try to find a cave or something. Go!”

She swiveled to face the blue qheuen. “Are you ready, Blade?”

“I am, Sara!” The blue clacked two fierce pincers and stepped forward, as if prepared to fight the Battle of Znunir Trading Post all over again.

More laughter made her turn around. This time it was Dedinger. The former sage chortled amusement.

“Oh, don’t mind me, sister. Your plan sounds delightful. It’ll save my life and those of my men. So by all means, Kurt, do as she says! Head for the rocks. Go!”

Sara quickly saw what Dedinger meant. If Urunthai reinforcements found they could not follow the fugitives through a boulder field, or down some narrow grotto, or up a garu tree, that could force them to renew their broken alliance with the band of human radicals, forgoing vengeance — at least for as long as it took the desert trappers to hunt Kurt and the others down.

She sagged, seeing the futility of it all.

We’ve been through so much, only to come right back where we started.

“Sara—” Kurt said again. Then the old man stopped what he had been about to say and cocked his head. “Listen.”

The clearing went silent. Moments later, she heard it too — the approaching clatter of rushing hooves. A great many of them. She could feel their rumbling haste through the soles of her feet.

Too late to come up with another plan. Too late for anything but dignity.

She took the Stranger’s arm. “Sorry I didn’t catch on when you first tried to warn us,” she said, brushing the worst streaks of dust off of his clothes and straightening his collar. If he was to be their prize, he should at least look the part of a valuable hostage, not some ragamuffin drifter. He repaid her with a tentative smile. Together, they turned south, to face the onrushing cavalry.

The newcomers swelled out of the darkness, from between giant pillars of stone. They’re urs, all right, she thought. Burly, powerful and well-armed they spilled into the clearing in a disciplined skirmish pattern, taking positions on all sides, brandishing their arbalests, scanning for danger signs. Sara was startled, and a bit insulted, when the vanguard simply ignored the standing humans and Blade, finding them no threat at all.

More surprisingly, they paid little more heed to the trussed-up prisoners, leaving them right where they were.

Sara noticed that the war paint of the new arrivals was unlike that of UrKachu’s band — more restrained, dabbed in smoother, more flowing lines. Could that mean they weren’t Urunthai, after all?

From the dismayed look on Ulgor’s face, Sara realized this was not the band of “friends” the tinker was expecting. She nursed a slim reed of hope. Could they be militia? They wore no formal brassards or tunics, nor did they act like the typical urrish militia unit — local herdsmen who drilled for fun every eighth day, when the weather was good.

Who are these guys?

Skirmishers whistled that the area was clear. Then a senior matron with a gray-fringed muzzle sauntered into the firelight. She approached the Dolo Villagers and lowered her neck, respectfully.

“We regret our tardiness, friends. It is sad you were inconvenienced, vut we are glad to see you overcane your trouvles, without helf.”

Sara stared as Kurt touched noses with the aged urs. “You’re not late if you arrive in the nick of time, Ulashtu. I knew you’d scent our affliction and come for us…”

At that point, Sara lost track of the conversation. For the Stranger pulled her about, squeezing her arm tight while a nervous, excited quaver throbbed along his skin.

More figures were approaching out of the darkness.

Perplexing shapes.

At first she thought it was another party of urs, outfitted for war. Very large urs, with strange, stiff necks and an odd way of moving. For an instant she recalled the ancient illustration that once rimmed the Parthenon — the one depicting savage, mythical centaurs.