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live an arduous life filled with peril, defending their ponsho flocks against the demons of the air,
continually fighting among themselves, man-beasts of lowering aspect and formidable ferocity.
I, Dray Prescot, say this with all truth: I was lucky to be able to fly over them and not have to come to
ground.
As you know I had been well informed that it was against policy to take an airboat into the lands of the
inner sea. Delia had landed her flier some way off the eastern edge of the sea and had taken local
transport when she had come searching for me before. The people of the Eye of the World had little if
any knowledge that it was possible for a man to fly through the air.
Now I knew that interdiction must have come from the Empire of Hamal, which made and sold vollers,
and the law had been implemented by the Presidio of Vallia because they did not wish to lose their
franchise. Hamal would not sell vollers to Pandahem or Loh, and their lack had proved disastrous in the
past.
I consigned Hamal and Empress Thyllis, with whom I had an outstanding debt, to the Ice Floesof Sicce
as I bored on through the bright air of Kregen, angling to fetch up in Sanurkazz itself.
How often I had promised myself I would return to the Eye of the World! And how often fate had
destroyed my intentions, one way or another, every time. I had planned to return on a joyous holiday, to
take my Delia and the family, to revisit the haunts of my existence there as a Krozair captain and see my
friends once again. Now I came in urgency and haste, desperate that Delia might be in peril.
My plans were very simple. I would go first to Sanurkazz, the chief city of the Zairians, and seek
information. If I found nothing I would fly on to Zy, the island fortress of the Krozair Brotherhood, that
order of which I was proud to account myself a member and which, I truly think, meant more to me, for
all the tiny scope of its activities on Kregen, than anything else except Delia and my family.
The journey had taken the best part of three days. I had flown in as straight a line by the compass as I
could contrive, a great-circle route that wasted not a dwabur of distance. The distance would have taken
months to travel by land and sea. It had taken me month after weary month to travel in the opposite
direction. As the land opened out below and signs of cultivation appeared, I felt those irritable,
apprehensive, fearful sensations attack me once more as I neared my goal.
It seemed to me that Delia had come here because she had had bad news of Segnik he who was
now Zeg. I had pushed all that from my mind. But what other explanation could there be? I had
discussed with Delia the education of our children many times. She knew that I intended Drak and, in his
time, Segnik to go to the Krozairs of Zy. I believe the most profound education was possible with them. I
had intended to take a hand to soften the teachings that emphasized the hatred for the Grodnims of the
green northern shore. Oh, yes, as you know, I hated the overlords of Magdag and all the other Grodnims
of the northern shore. But I felt mature enough to hold that feeling in its proper perspective. I had worn
green clothes of late and I had met in friendship those to whom green and religions associated with the
color were good and fine. It was the inner strength the Krozairs of Zy give, the spiritual teachings, the
skill at arms, the knowledge of self, all those mystic disciplines that make a Krozair a man among men
that I wanted for my sons.
Dealing with the religious beliefs of Kregen, it was in the pure and life-enhancing teachings of Opaz, the
embodiment of the Invisible Twins, that I wished my family to be brought up. But nowhere else could the
skill, the powers, the self-control, the mystic self-knowledge of the Krozairs be found than here, in the
Eye of the World. To be a Krzy is a great and precious gift.
Then a twitch afflicted my grim old lips. Among all this high-level occupation of my brain the tickling
thought emerged that I would see friends here who would bring me down to earth or Kregen with
a bump.
I would again see Nath and Zolta, my two favorite rascals, my two oar comrades. By Zair! We d roister
all night in Sanurkazz! We d have the fat and jolly mobiles falling over their feet as they tried to arrest us,
dancing through the streets, a flagon of drink in one hand and a pretty tavern wench in the other! What a
fool I had been not to return here sooner!
And there would be Pur Zenkiren to see, that upright, grim, but scrupulously fair Krozair who had been
a good friend to me and who must by now be the Grand Archbold of the Krozairs of Zy, for Pur Zazz,
who had then held that exalted post, had clearly almost run his long life on Kregen when I had last
spoken with him.
Then, too, there was Mayfwy. All my pleasant thoughts of anticipation clouded as I remembered with
great affection and pride my oar comrade Zorg of Felteraz. He had died under the lashes of the
whip-deldars of Magdag. His widow Mayfwy, her son Zorg and daughter Fwymay had made Nath and
Zolta and myself very welcome at the estate of Felteraz. Yes, I would like to see Mayfwy again.
So there were many places and people I must visit. But first I must assure myself that Delia was safe. To
look back was agony. Twenty-one infernal years!
Because people of Kregen live to two hundred years or so, once they reach maturity they change only
slowly. I held a vision of my Delia in my brain that could not have altered in any great particular. Our
thousand-year promise of life meant a great deal to me, quite apart from the obvious, for twenty-one
years separation on Earth would destroy in time s remorseless flow the joys we knew. How I hated the
Star Lords when I allowed myself to brood on their high-handed usage of me!
That, along with all the rest of the unprofitable pining, had to be thrust aside. I would go on in my old
way. I knew what I was about. If Zair was with me and Opaz and Djan too, to be sure I must
succeed.
Chapter Ten
I am cruel to Mayfwy of Felteraz
Brilliant, glittering, filled with color, the waters of the Eye of the World rolled before me.
The twin Suns of Scorpio hung in the western sky, drenching the world in color and radiance. The air
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